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THE 



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AND 



ITS RELATIONS TO INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION, 



AS SHOWN BY 



Prof. Cam's Reply to the Grangers and Mechanics ; 
Prof. Swinton's Testimony Before the Legislature; 

The New Education, by "Columella;" 

Memorial to the Legislature by Joint Committee of 

the State Grange and Mechanics' Deliberative 

Assembly, and other Documents. 




• • -»-^»>>- e -'^— 



V 



Bexj. Dore & Co., Steam Book and Job Printers, 

5 1 2 Sacramento Street, San Francisco. s q y 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Prof. CARR'S REPLY, 

Prof. SWINTON'S TESTIMONY, 

THE NEW EDUCATION, . 

MEMORIAL, 



3 

55 

77 
109 






'3? 



Prof. Carr's Reply 



-TO- 



4- *■ 

Utftl 



•OF- 



Califof^nia State Gf^ange, 
Mechanics' Deliberative Assembly 



AND 



Mechanics' State Council, 



September S, 1874. 



SAN FRANCISCO: 

Benj. Dore & Co., Steam Book and Job Printers, 512 Sacramento St. 

1874. 



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" I am of the opinion that, under the new reign of labor, as the industry of 
man reclaims the whole face of the earth, he will become better fitted for the 
Paradise and blessing of his Father and God above. Let, then, the reign of 
labor be consummated on earth. Let its temples, its towers, and its bulwarks 
rise to the skies. 

Let the fruits of its toil hang on every tree, and its golden harvest wave over 
every field, let its busy enginery clatter along every mountain stream — its steeds 
of fire and lightning messages course every laud and wave, and when this new 
reign of works has done its utmost and best, our whole duty to God and to man 
is done and well done, here on the earth." 

Professor J. B. TURNER. 



ERRATA. 



On page 15, near bottom of page, for " salray " read salary. 

On page 23, near centre of page, for " habitate " read habitat. 

On page 27, near top of page, for " college " read colleges, 

On page 84, near top of page, for " wished " read wish. 

On page 44, near centre of page, for " Cornells " read Cornell. 

On page 46, near centre of page, for "past graduate" readp<?«£ graduate. 

On page 50, near bottom of page, for " unestimable" read inestimable. 

On page 51, near top of page, for " unestimable " read inestimable. 

On page 76, at top of page, for " Hon. G-. W. Pinney " read Hon. G. 
M. Pinney, and at bottom of page, for " G. W. P." read G. M. P. 

On page 79, near top of page, for " legislature " read legislatures. 

On page 80, near centre of page, to " practically illustrated," add the 
word by. 

On page 93, for " of hostile criticisms " read or. 

On page 94, near bottom of page, for " instructions " read institutions. 
On pagt- ^ j)« below centre of page, for "iM practical" read all practical. 
On page 96, for " distinction caste " read distinction of caste. 
On page 98, for " Raw plows " read 2scRoikt_ 
On page 98, for " expedience " read expediency*. "~~~-~— ______^ 

On page 98, for " orchard specimen " read orchard o/specime^Tfra^^rcSill^ 
On page 102, for " It is magic " read It's magic. 
On page 1U6, for " Morill 'Lread Morrill. 



t 



/ 



PROF. CARR'S REPLY 



TO THB 



RANGERS AND ^VLeCHANICS 



At a meeting of the Mechanics' State Council August 12, 
1874, the following resolution was passed : 

" Resolved, that Prof. E. S. Carr be and is hereby requested to 
furnish the Joint Committee of Grangers and Mechanics with 
such facts concerning the history of the Agricultural College as 
will enable us to understand all about it, with a view to laying 
them before the people and the next legislature." 

" In your statement we shall also be pleased to learn what 
you know in relation to the Mechanical Department of the Uni- 
versity." 

This being transmitted through the President, Gen. A. M. 
Winn ,was answered by Prof. Carr in the subjoined communica- 
tion, bearing date Sept. 5 ; read before the Joint Committee Sept. 
15th, and published in part in the Sunday Chronicle of Sept, 
27th, 1874. The entire document is here given. 

To J. G. Gardner, J. D. Blanchar, W. H. Baxter, of State 
Grange ; E. D. Sawyer, M. J. Donnovan, Charles G. Terrill, 
of Mechanics, Deliberative Assembly ; A. 31. Winn, G. B. 
Merriam and J. W. Duncan of Mechanics' State Council 
Joint Committee — Gentlemen : In reply to the request con- 
tained in the above communication, I have prepared the follow- 
ing statement, without access to other documents than the 
published reports and statements of the Regents and my own 
private papers, with such information as I have been able to 
obtain from President Durant and otherS connected with the 
College of California, and the various published reports of the 



Regents. 



4 PROFESSOR CARR S REPLY. 

During my five years service as Professor of Agriculture my 
knowledge of the purposes of the Board has been mainly deriv- 
ed, from these sources, the notices of their meetings which have 
appeared in the newspapers being the first intimation which the 
Faculty have received regarding matters of gravest importance 
to them, such as changes in educational policy, appointments 
and removals. I shall therefore necessarily confine myself to 
such facts in the history of the Agricultural College as have 
come under my own observation. 

THE FIRST STEP TOWARD THE ENDOWMENT OF AN AGRICULTURAL 

COLLEGE. 

One of the first, if not the very first definite movement toward 
the endowment of agricultural colleges, was the presentation of 
a memorial from the Pacific Coast to the Congress of 1873, by 
Warren & Son, in the Senate, approved and unanimously referred 
to the Committee on Education. It ably set forth the agricultu- 
ral capacity of California, its growing importance as an agricul- 
tural State, and the unexampled facilities afforded for every de- 
partment of agricultural education. It attracted respectful 
attention from eminent friends of agriculture in the Eastern 
States. Our greatest men had already urged the consecration of 
our public lands to the education of the people. Europe had 
moved in the establishment of agricultural and mechanical 
schools, Congress had given those liberal endowments to " higher 
seminaries of learning" in the younger States, on which the 
noble Universities of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and others, are 
founded. But nothing was done to elevate our industries through 
education until July, 1862, when Congress, under the sound of 
hostile cannon, " legislated into being, the great comprehensive 
system of industrial and scientific education," a system which 
was to give dignity to labor, and " knit into its very core" practi- 
cal with theoretical knowledge of all the sciences and arts bearing 
upon agriculture and mechanic arts. The measure had met with 
violent opposition from "optimists, pessimists, sham economists, 
hold-backs and do-nothings." Buchanan had killed it once with 
a veto, but at last our statesmen carried it through, and Morrill's 
bill, with Abraham Lincoln's signature, became one of the sig- 
nificant facts of our national history. 

Colleges crowded forward to avail themselves of the grant. 
Denominational schools of all stripes and colors insisted upon 
dividing and sharing in its benefits. Twenty different institutions 
presented their claims to it in the New York Legislature alone. 
There was great danger that the benefits of the grant would be 
lost between the army of speculators in public lands and the 



PROFESSOR CARR S REPLY. 

army of obstructionists to the educational ideas it embodied, a 
danger not yet averted. Reckless waste and gross violation of 
public trust had in many states attended the administration of 
the seminary lands. It was feared that this would prove true 
of the Agricultural College grant also. In every Western State 
a handful of men stood between these two fires, under every 
conceivable form of secret opposition and open hostility, to hold 
this precious legacy inviolate ; and that they have so far suc- 
ceeded is due to the fact that they appealed directly to the com- 
mon sense of the people, who do not need the aid of lawyers to 
interpret its plain provisions. 

The first section of the Act of Congress (approved July 22, 
1862) " donating public lands to the several States and Terri- 
tories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture 
and the mechanic arts," provides that a quantity of land equal 
to 30,000 acres for each Senator and Representative of the State 
in Congress be given for the purpose named. Section 2 prescribes 
how the land shall be apportioned, located and sold. Section 3, 
that all expenses shall be paid by the States to which the lands 
belong. Section 4 provides : 

That all moneys derived from the sale of the lands aforesaid by the States to 
which the lands are apportioned, and from the sales of land scrip hereinbefore 
provided for, shall be fnvested in stocks of the United States, or of the States, or 
some other safe stocks, yielding not less than five per centum upon the par value 
of said stocks ; and that the moneys so invested shall constitute a perpetual 
fund, the capital of which shall remain forever undiminished (except so far as 
may be provided in Section 5 of this Act), and the interest of which shall be 
inviolably appropriated, by each State which may take and claim the benefit of 
this Act, to the endowment, support and maintenance of at least one College, 
where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical 
studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are 
related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the Legislatums 
of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and prac- 
tical education of the industrial classes in several pursuits and professions in life. 

SHARE OF CALIFORNIA. 

The share of California in this national gift was 150,000 
acres of land. On her admission into the Union California re- 
ceived seventy-two sections of land, which were her portion of 
the fund for higher seminaries of learning already alluded to, 
and had appropriated them to the endowment and support of a 
University. 

By act of the Legislature, March 31, 1866, an Agricultural, 
Mining and Mechanical Art College, with a Board of Directors, 
was established. It never went into operation. The Act was 
repealed by the Act organizing the Universitv, which became a 
law March 23, 1868. 



6 PBOFESSOR CARRES REPLY. 

The question of location was an important one. The Com- 
mittee to whom this was referred finally decided against Napa, 
San Jose and other desirable points in favor of Almeda county 
and the neighborhood of Oakland. The final choice of a site 
was afterward determined by the action of the College of Cali- 
fornia. 

The question arose here, as it had elsewhere : " Shall we have 
an independent Agricultural and Mechanical College, or make 
such colleges, with that of Mining, parts of a comprehensive 
plan ?" There appears to have been no one in California at that 
time to sound a warning note against the dangers of subversion, 
which had already appeared in older States ; and though there 
were many enthusiastic friends of " University education " ready 
to bear a hand in the building of the young University, there 
were none to emphasize the practical features. 

THE PROVISIONS OF THE ORGANIC ACT. 

The organization of an Agricultural College therefore became 
incidental to a more comprehensive plan, instead of a leading 
object, in the very foundation. Still, the organic Act creating 
the University was sufficiently plain in its provisions, had they 
been carried out in good faith. 

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE WITH MANUAL LAROR SYSTEM TO BE 

DEVELOPED. 

It provides [see Section 4,] 'that the College of Agriculture 
shall be first established ; but in selecting the professors and in- 
structors for the said College of Agriculture the Regents shall, so 
far as in their power, select persons possessing such requirements 
in their several vocations as will enable them to discharge the 
duties of professors in the several colleges of mechanic arts, of 
mines and of civil engineering. . As soon as practicable a system 
of moderate manual labor shall be established in connection with 
the Agricultural College and upon its agricultural and ornamen- 
tal grounds, having for its object practical education in agriculture, 
landscape gardening, the health of the students, and to afford 
them an opportunity by their earnings of defraying a portion of 
the expenses of their education. These advantages shall be open, 
in the first instance, to students in the College of Agriculture 
who shall be entitled to a prefernece in that behalf." 

COLLEGE OF MECHANIC ARTS. 

Section 5 "provides that the College of Mechanic Arts shall next 
be established, etc., and that the said Board of Regents shall 
always bear in mind that the College of Agriculture and the Col- 
lege of Mechanic Arts are an especial object of their care and 



PROFESSOR CARR S REPLY. 7 

superintendence, and that they shall be considered and treated as 
entitled, primarily, to the use of the funds donated for their 
establishment and maintenance " by the said Act of Congress. 

COLLEGE OF MINES. 

Section 6 provides that the College of Mines and the College 
of civil Engineering shall be next established, etc. 

Section 7 " provides that the College of Letters shall be co- 
existent with the aforesaid College of Arts. But the provisions 
regarding the order in which the said colleges shall be organized 
shall not be construed as directing or permitting the organization 
of any of the specified colleges to be unnecessarily delayed, but 
only as indicating the order in which the colleges shall be or- 
ganized, beginning with the College of Agriculture and adding 
in succession to the body of instructors in that and the other 
colleges such other instructors as may be necessary to organize 
the other colleges successively in the order above indicated." 

A FARMER FOR SECRETARY. 

Section 15 " provides that a competent person, who is a practi- 
cal agriculturits by profession, competent to superintend the work- 
ing of the agricultural farm, and of sufficient scientific acquire- 
ments to discharge the duties of Secretary of the Board of 
Regents as prescribed in this Act, shall be chosen by said Board 
as their Secrteary. The Board of Regents may also appoint a 
Treasurer of the University and prescribe the form and surie- 
ties of his bond as such, which shall be executed, approved by 
them and filed with the Secretary before any such Treasurer 
shall go into office. The Secretary and Treasurer shall be sub- 
ject to summary removal by the Board of Regents." 

Section 16 requires the Secretary to reside at and keep his 
office at the University, for important reasons thereinafter enum- 
erated. 

GRAVE DEFECTS. 

I feel justified in saying that the position of the Agricultural 
College is not due to a defective plan of organization, as far as 
its educational features are concerned. Its defects lie in the ex- 
traordinary powers conferred upon the Governor and Board of 
Regents — powers which, both in the original form and under 
the skillful later manipulation of the Code Examiner, Regent 
Dwindle, leaves the property of the University in their hands, 
to be " managed, invested, reinvested, sold, transferred, and in 
all respects managed, and the proceeds thereof used, bestowed, 
invested and reinvested by the said Board of Regents," (see 
Section 12 of the organic Act), while (see Section 11 do.) " no 



8 PROFESSOR CARE'S REPLY. 

member of the Board of regents or of the University (perhaps this 
refers to the Treasurer) shall be deemed a public officer by vir- 
tue of such membership, or required to take any oath of office, 
but his employment as such shall be held and deemed to be ex- 
clusively a private trust." We have thus far presented the 
anomaly of an institution created by a public fund, endowed 
from the public treasury, supported by public taxation, four of 
whose administrators hold their positions only as State officers, 
which is to all intents and purposes a private institution, beyond 
the reach of penalties, of the press, or of public ensure for 
malfeasancein office. 

The amended Codes provide that " the Regents may invest 
any of the permanent funds of the University which are now or 
may hereafter be in their custody in productive unincumbered 
real estate m this State " (see section 1415 of Poltical Code of 
California), and that if the terms of any grant, gift, devise or 
bequest are impracticable in the conditions imposed, such grant, 
gift, devise or bequest shall not thereby fail, but such conditions 
may be rejected, and the " intent of the donor carried out as 
near as may be," etc. These large privileges have been exercis- 
ed as freely as they were conferred. The grant of Congress to 
"provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and mechanic 
arts," they tell us, was "really granted for the encouragement 
of all branches of modern scientific instruction, and was so con- 
strued in the application of it to the University of California." 

ANTICIPATORY LEGISLATION. 

The history of the Credit Mobilier and of every great fraud 
committed upon the public under the sanction of law shows that 
the first steps of the fraud have been to obtain the necessary 
legislation. In all the shifting scenery of the play the conspicu- 
ous figures remain the same. 

Regents Stebbins, Dwinelle and Haight, of the present advisory 
Committee, have been from the beginning principally responsible 
for the legal provisions which enable them to degrade the Facul- 
ty and manage the institution in the interest of capitalists 
rather than the people. 

They put their own construction upon the terms and require- 
ments of the grant in respect to sales and investments, the}' also 
construed the provisions of the organic Act with regard to a Sec- 
retary to be impracticable, and for five years no attempt was 
made to comply with them. 

Seven members constitute a quorum. The Advisory Commit- 
tee (five) will always be a majority, and the President is now 
entitled to a vote. It is easy to see, therefore, how a large body 



PROFESSOR CARR S REPLY. i) 

of twenty-thvee members may be controlled and managed by 
skillful combinations. 

COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

Before and after the formal organization of the University 
overtures were made to the College of California, already in suc- 
cessful operation in Oakland, with an able faculty and fully 
organized classes, to effect its disorganization and the transfer of 
its classes, buildings, lands, liabilities and assets to the new in- 
stitution, in which a " College of Letters " might be co-existent 
though it could not take precedence. Its property was estimated 
to be worth $80,000. (See Statement of Regents.) 

Its founder, Henry Durant, was the pioneer of the higher edu- 
cation on this coast ; it is expected that through him the whole 
history of the relations of the College of California to the Uni- 
versity will yet be made public. It is sufficient to say in this 
connection, that when the transfer was legally effected, on the 
condition of the uninterrupted continuance of its classes, there 
was no recognition of the eminent services of Mr. Durant to 
education in the formation of the new Board ; nor was the 
intent of the donors carried out according to their understanding; 
of what was practicable or " in good faith " toward themselves 
or the people of the State. Among these Trustees were some of 
the best educated men in the community, with a large experience 
and knowledge of the peculiar industrial conditions of the coast, 
such as Sherman Day, Henry Durant and others. Into whose 
hands was the execution of this great, though "private trust,''' 
committed ? A careful reading of the organic Act will show 
that nearly all the responsibility was thrown upon the Governor. 
(See Section 11.) Besides the six ex-officio members, there 
were eight appointed members "to b? nominated by the Gover- 
nor by and with the consent of the Senate," and the remaining 
eight members were to be " chosen from the body of the State," 
by the official and appointed members, to hold their office for 
the term of sixteen years, according to classification. All vacan- 
cies were to be filled by appointments of the Governor. If 1 
am rightly informed, Governor Haight, did not make any ap- 
pointments until after the adjournment of the Legislature, thus 
dispensing with confirmations. He then chose Samuel Merritt, 
John T. Doyle, Richard P. Hammond, John W. Dwindle, 
Horatio Stebbins, Lawrence Archer, William Watt and Samuel 
B. McKee. 

The first meeting was held on the 19th of June, 1868, when 
these appointed Regents proceeded to elect " from the body of 
the State " Isaac Friedlander, Edward Tompkins, J. Mora Moss, 



10 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

S. F. Butterworth, A. J. Moulder, A. J. Bowie, Frederick F. 
Low and John B. Felton. Not a single representative of the 
agricultural or mechanical classes appear among these names. 

ORGANIZATION AND GETTING TO BUSINESS. 

The first business which engaged the attention of the now 
complete Board was the disposition of the lands. This was put 
into the hands of a Committee, of which Friedlander was Chair- 
man. Not long afterward Regent Freidlander resigned, and 
another eminent friend of agriculture from the body of the 
State, but from the City of San Francisco. — Louis Sachs, was 
appointed in his place. On the 2d of March, 1869, the Board 
received a proposition " from a responsible party to purchase 
the entire grant of 150,000 acres for $3.50 per acre in gold." 

This party was no other than the ex-Regent and Chairman 
of the Land Committee, Mr. Friedlander. This proposition was 
declined. An Act had just been passed through Congress con- 
ferring exceptional privileges upon the State of California in the 
matter of locating its lands. (See statements of Regents before 
Joint Committee of the Legislature, pages 26 and 27.) 

The Board had full powers under the Organic Act to " locate 
and sell such lands for such price and on such terms as they 
shall prescribe." (See Section 20 of Organic Act). 

These specialties of land location are better known to the 
Regents and purchasers than to the public or to myself. 

The appointment of Mr. Moulder as Secretary (his place as Re- 
gent being filled by John S. Hager), was an evasion of the most 
explicit requirements of the organic Act, defining the qualifica- 
tions and duties of that office. (So far from saying this with 
any unkindness to Mr. Moulder, I take pleasure in testifying to 
the uniform kindness which has marked his relations to the 
Faculty of the University). The appointment of Mr. Ralston 
as Treasurer, who became also a Regent on the resignation of 
Governor Low, and of General George B. McClellan as Presi- 
dent, belongs to this period of the history of the Agricultural 
College. 

Four Professors were soon after appointed in accordance with 
section Three of the Organic Act, viz : Professor John Le Conte 
of the University of South Carolina, to the chair of Physics 
and Industrial Mechanics ; Professor Joseph Le Conte of the 
same, to the chair of Geology, Natural History and Botany ; 
Professor R. A. Fisher of Grass Valley, to the chair of Chemis- 
try, Mining and Metallurgy ; Professor Martin Kellogg of the 
College of California, to the chair of Ancient Languages. Gen- 
eral McClellan having declined the Presidency, to the regret of 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 11 

many ardent friends of the University, Professor John Le Conte 
was called by telegraph to assist in the organization. He arrived 
in May, and in July following four additional professors and 
two instructors were elected, among these Ezra S. Carr, as Pro- 
fessor of Agriculture, Agricultural Chemistry and Horticulture. 
In my letter to the Board accepting the appointment, 1 defined 
my position and understanding of its duties, in the following 
words, " my best efforts will be devoted to develope, and elevate 
the Agricultural pursuits of the State to the rank of the learned 
professions, and to make the University the exponent of the 
industries, learning and intelligence of the age. 
Believing that the Agricultural are and ever will be the leading 
interests of the State, I doubt not the Board will afford every 
reasonable facility in teaching the public not only through the 
class-room, but through every avenue of approach." 

Nothing could have been more complimentary than the terms 
in which my appointment was communicated to me. 

The Board publicly stated that they " had been exceedingly 
fortunate in the selection of these gentlemen, all of them being 
eminent in their several departments and some of them having 
achieved a national reputation." Twenty thousand dollars was 
appropriated for chemical and philosophical appratus which Pro- 
fessor Fisher was sent to Europe to procure. (See Report of 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, Regent Fitzgerald, for 
1868-9, page 27.) Professor John Le Conte became acting Presi- 
dent and applied himself with zeal to the task of creating an in- 
stitution looking forward and not backward for its inspiration. 
No man could have been found so well fitted by his training, his 
tastes or his character for the just and impartial prosecution of 
his work. The working plan as exhibited by him in the Pros- 
pectus and first Register gave entire satisfaction to the Faculty 
and friends of education. It declared the University to consist 
of five distinct colleges, four of arts and one of letters, with a 
full course of study continuing for four years, with appropriate 
degrees. They were : 1. A State College of Agriculture. 
2. A State College .of Mechanic Arts. 3. A State Col- 
lege of Mines. 4. A State College of Engineenig. 5. 
A State College of Letters. 

OPENING OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

The University was formally opened in Oakland in Septem- 
ber, 1869, with about forty students, most of whom had pre- 
viously belonged to the College of California. By reference to 
the curriculum it will be seen that the special studies of agri- 
culture and horticulture are confined to the third and fourth 



12 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

years of the course ; the first two years being initial, it was 
therefore thought best to employ a part of my time in bringing 
the University to the notice of the people in the different parts 
of the State. I had, as a Regent and Professor for eleven years 
in another State University, become convinced of the necessity 
of awaking a living interest among the people by making the 
influence of the higher institutions felt upon the lower schools, 
which are their natural feeders. I therefore, with the approba- 
tion of the Board and Faculty, occupied my first year with two 
lectures a week to the advanced class, with a course of twelve 
lectures in the normal school, and in lecturing to agriculturists 
and teachers at their various gatherings. Every moment of 
leisure which I could spare from these occupations was spent in 
studying the capacities of the University domain at Berkeley, 
for such practical work as I knew most of the States were suc- 
cessfully prosecuting in their agricultural colleges. I found the 
domain to consist of something over 300 acres, amply sufficient 
for all necessary experimental and illustrative farming and gar- 
dening, though hardly commensurate with the agricultural im- 
portance of our State. Well-sheltered valley land offered fa- 
cilities for experiments in acclimatization, hillsides of various 
exposures for orchards and vineyards and forestry. Mr. Lewell- 
ing and other eminent horticulturists assisted me with their 
experience. 

THE FIRST PLANTING. 

January 5, 1870, I received a note from Secretary Moulder, 
informing me that Doctor Merritt had been authorized to expend 
$1,500 in " ornamenting the grounds " (without any plan having 
been adopted), and suggesting that I should confer with him re- 
specting the "introduction of new and valuable plants." I did 
so, and replied to Mr. Moulder the next day as follows : 

* * " :,s * * " 1 have been very desirous of laying 
out my work in the Agricultural Department so as to loose no 
time in demonstrating its utility. My understanding of what 
the work is to be, aside from teaching, is substantially what you 
hint at in your letter, and while awaiting an invitation from the 
Board or some member of it to express my views of the proper 
disposition of the grounds to be devoted to agricultural and hor- 
ticultural purposes, I have opened correspondence with various 
parties at home and abroad with a view to obtaining seeds and 
plants for naturalization. I have written to Milne-Edwards of 
the G-arden of Plants Paris, for advice, plans, etc.; to Kew Gar- 
dens ; to Dr. Mueller of the Botanic Gardens at Melbourne, 
Australia, and I hope to be able, through Governor Low, to 



PROFESSOR CARH'S REPLY. 13 

secure something from China and Japan. " We want on the 
University grounds an experimental garden, where the value and 
mode of culture of all important crops can be accurately deter- 
mined, and new things tried on a small scale, something like 
what (as the accompanying document will show) is being done in 
the University of Wisconsin. Besides this, we want proper hor- 
ticultural gardens where not only the tea plant (Mr. Moulder 
had specially recommended experiments with the tea plant,) but 
the mulberry, and every variety of grape, fruit and nut which 
can be grown Avith or without protection can be studied. The 
new planting of each year ought hereafter to be of new varie- 
ties of trees and shrubs ; we ought to show the finest hedges, 
screens and belts of timber trees ; all that is of economic value 
in the vegetable world." 

Dr. Merritt complied with Mr. Moulder's request about the tea 
plants, but my opinion was never asked concerning the other 
planting. It consisted of a half dozen kinds of the commonest 
acacias, blue gums and pines distributed in masses all over the 
grounds, as appears at the present time. 

Early in May I sent the following communication to the 
Board : 

University of California, May 5, 1870. 

To the Honomble Regents of the University — Gentlemen : In view of the 
probability that the University will continue to occupy its present quarters in 
Oakland for a longer time than was at first contemplated, I would respectfully 
ask you to take such action in behalf of the Agricultural and Horticultural de- 
partments as will secure their practical efficiency when the removal to Berkeley 
gives an opportunity for field instruction. Unlike the other Colleges of the 
University this requires something more than an outlay of money for its equip- 
ment. The loss of a single season of growth is a serious one, because an exhibition 
of the methods of scientific culture is needed to demonstrate the value of the 
training which we propose to give. What Cornell and Amherst, and various 
other Universities on the same foundation as ours have done at the outset, in 
laying out experimental farms, planting orchards and botanic gardens, erections 
of horticultural buildings, etc., it seems to me important to have done here, with 
the least possible delay. It is one of the most important objects of this Depart- 
ment to attract students into the business of agriculture, and it will be easy to 
draw them to Berkeley, not only from California but from the older States, as soon 
as we can offer the same facilities for study which other institutions afford, nature 
having given us advantages to be found nowhere else ; and it is important for 
us to command the hearty interest of farmers and fruit growers in our work, by 
experiments made on a small but accurate scale, and carefully reported. 

With an outlay not exceeding that already made to the other Colleges the 
grounds of the University may be made in the next five years a complete exposi- 
tion of the agricultural and horticultural products of California. With this 
object in view I beg leave to offer the following suggestions : 

First — That the Board immediately locate such portions of the University 
domain as are to be devoted to agriculture and horticulture, and cause the same 
to be accurately surveyed and mapped. In my judgment the minimum appor- 
tionment for various purposes should be nearly as follows: For farming proper, 
including ground for students and other experiments, thirty acres ; for an or- 
chard of specimen fruit and nut trees, planted with a view to study by catalogue. 



14 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

forming a museum, of pomology, fifteen acres ; for vineyard, mulberry, textile 
and oil prducing plants, five acres ; for botanic garden proper, i. e. a collection 
of all useful medicinal, native and foreign plants capable of acclimatization, in- 
cluding an arboretum, twenty acres ; and for vegetables and small fruits, five acres. 
Reservations should also be made in a manner to subserve general ornamental 
effects, of places for belts of timber, wo »dland, etc., to illustrate forestry. Second 
— That the supervision and direction of this work be assigned to the Professor of 
Agriculture and Horticulture, who shall keep accounts of expenditures, records 
of plantations, making an annual exhibit of the same to the Secretary as a part 
of the Regents' report, and those demonstrating the profits of every crop and of 
the methods of culture adopted, and that as soon as practicable, by the erection 
of a farm house or such other residence as the Board may deem proper, the Ag- 
ricultural Professor move to Berkeley and have these interests in charge. Third 
— That a fixed annual appropriation be made for the purchase of seeds, nursery 
stock, and expense in obtaining foreign plants. I would also respectfully sug- 
gest that the building designated for the College of Agriculture be constructed 
with reference to the use of an Agricultural College, whatever others it may 
temporarily serve. The building so called on the present plans is arranged sim- 
ply for a school of chemistry and metallurgy 

I remain your obedient servant, 

EZRA S. CARR. 
P. S. — Since writing the foregoing, I see by reference to the organic Act, that 
the superintendence of the work referred to is made the duty of the Secretary of 
the Board, but the work itself constitutes the essential feature of an agricultural 
college, and I therefore submit these considerations to the Board, the immediate 
outlay being inconsiderable in comparison with the importance of results. 

PROFESSOR CARR'S ROVING COMMISSION. 

To this letter I received no answer, verbal or otherwise, unless 
the following resolution of the Board passed June 21, 1870, may- 
be so considered : 

Resolved, that in order to extend the advantages of the Agricultural College of 
the University to the largest number of citizens possible, and especially to persons 
practically interested in farming, fruit culture, wine making, wool growing and 
stock raising, the Professor of Agriculture, Agricultural Chemisty and Horticul- 
ture shall visit, as far as possible, all the agriculture centers of population in the 
State, and in evsry convenient neighborhood, where suitable accommodations can 
be obtained, deliver one or more lectures, illustrated where practicable, upon sub- 
jects connected with agriculture likely to be of most value and interest to the 
people of the locality. In these lectures it shall be his care to disseminate such 
information derived from study, from observation, from correspondence and gener- 
al experience as will be of practical use to the farmers, fruit growers and stock 
raisers, having special reference to the imparting of reliable information upon the 
nature and best mode of culture of such new crops, fruits, trees and vines (and 
the preparation of their products for market) as may be adapted to the soil and 
climate of California, and likely to increase the productive resources of the State. 
His course of lectures shall embrace the branches for which instruction is now 
provided in the University, viz : Agriculture proper, Agricultural Chemistry, 
Zoology, Horticulture, Geology, Veterinary Science, Botany, Rural Economy, 
Meteorology, Diseases of Animals and Plants, Forestry, and all kindred subjects: 
it being the intention of the Regents by the course here adopted to transfer the 
Agricultural College of the University from the closet to the field, and make its 
instruction of practical value to the people of the State. These lectures shall be 
free, and public notice shall be given of the time and place of their delivery. 

Dur.ng his tour through the State, the Professor of Agriculture shall carefully 
examine the growing- crops, study their culture, noting particularly any exception- 
al influences calculated to improve or injure them, and communicate the result 
of his observations in his lectures. He shall take special pains to collect statis- 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 15 

tics of the crops, flocks and herds of the State and shall report them from time 
to time for publication. He shall open communication with all local Agricultu- 
ral Societies, and so far as possible, place his services at their disposal and deliver 
his instructions under their auspices. 

Resolved, That the Board of Regents will themselves procure, from all quarters, 
at home and abroad, rare and valuable seeds and will distribute the same, through 
their Secretary and Professor of Agriculture, throughout the State, to such 
persons as desire to test their growth. 

These resolutions are published entire in the statements of 
the Regents already referred to (page 69) as an evidence of their 
good will to the Agricultural College. 

Though this resolution was absurd in its nature and became 
a jest among the teachers of the State, I endeavored to carry 
out its spirit, as far as my entire time, including vacations, and 
the constant and gratuitous aid of my family, permitted. The 
correspondence elicited by this resolution, which was published 
in nearly every newspaper in the State, became no small part of 
each day's duties. This resolution has never been revoked, al- 
tei'ed or amended. The only change in the programme thus laid 
down, of which I have ever been informed, was in a resolution 
adopted by the Regents at a meeting held November 22, 1871, 
when the Secretary was ordered to notify me " to incur no ad- 
ditional expense for traveling while delivering lectures, until 
further notice." During the previous year the Board had paid 
my traveling expenses. "You will observe," the Secretary 
stated, in his official communication, " that the order does not 
necessarily involve the discontinuance of your valuable lectures, 
but only the cessation of further cost to the University. The 
various bodies and associations for whose benefit these lectures 
are delivered should pay all necessary expenses," etc. From 
that day to this the Board have never incurred a cent of ex- 
penditure for any such purpose. 

PROFESSOR OARR GETS TWO APPOINTMENTS IN ONE DAY. 

At a meeting of the Board, October 4, 1870, Mr. Butterworth 
introduced the following resolution, which was adopted : 

Resolved, That the Professorship of Chemistry, Mining and Metallurgy be 
abolished, and that the duties of the Chair be devolved on the Professor of Agri- 
culture and Agricultural Chemistry. 

This abolished Professor Fisher, who was allowed his salray 
to the end of the current month. It is proper to state that 
neither Professor Fisher nor myself, President Durant or any 
member of the Faculty had the slightest intimation of thif ac- 
tion until after it was accomplished. At the same meeting 
(October 4th.) the Secretary was instructed to cast the ballot of 
the Board for the following gentlemen "to fill the various Chairs 
in the Medical Department of the University." 1 was elected 



16 PROFESSOE CARR's REPLY. 

Professor of Chemistry. Having just completed a course of 
fifty-six lectures on that subject, the duties of our respective 
chairs having occupied Dr. Le Conte and myself during the pre- 
vious vacation in the University proper, these simultaneous 
appointments demonstrate the sentiments of the Board as to my 
" unfitness " and " incompetency." 

THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE FARM SOLD. 

A very significant fact, taken in connection with the new 
duties of the Agricultural Professor, and which has very im- 
portant bearings upon later measures, was the proposition of 
the Executive Committee, through Mr. Butterworth, to dispose 
of "certain lands outside of the University site, which could 
with propriety be disposed of, as they are not needed for the use 
of the University." The appraised value when the land was 
purchased was $18,000 for building lots, $14,000 for one hun- 
dred and twelve acres of so-called "mountain land," and $2,800 
for another parcel — in all, $35,000, estimated value. (See re- 
port in Alta California of meeting of Board, November 10 or 
11, 1870.) This included "all the College Water Company's 
rights." (See " Statements " of Regents to Joint Legislative 
Committee, March 3, 1873, page 40.) It included the best land 
for agricultural and horticultural purposes in the possession of 
the University. This transaction, so fatal to the prospects of 
the Agricultural College, was actually con sum mated November 
11, 1870, my first and only knowledge of it being obtained through 
the newspapers. I was told, and believe, that President Durant 
strongly disapproved of the action when it came to his knowl- 
edge, and a former Trustee of the College of California took the 
ground that it was illegal. The object attained was the purchase 
of the Brayton property, effected by the Begent who was acting 
as the agent of the estate. 

This transaction is claimed by the Regents to have added 
materially to the property of the University and " profitable to 
the State." The property parted with, obtained by donation of 
the College of California, consisted of nearly if not quite 200 
acres of land, immediately adjoining the present domain and site 
of the University, which the Regents say on page 46 of their 
statements is " worth at low valuation, $1,000 an acre." Esti- 
mating the value of the water rights, disposed of in this sale, 
and which to the Agriculture College are inestimable — and 
without considering the importance to the University of holding 
theose contiguous " parcels ; " had they not been required for Ag- 
ricultural experiments, or the illegality of employing any part 
of the land fund in the purchase of property for which the Uni- 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 17 

versity had no use, (the last block purchased,) the loss to the 
University in money value alone may be stated at from $175- 
200,000 dollars. The College Block recently sold for $54,000, 
was already owned by the University when the Brayton pur- 
chase was made. 

Allow me to state in this connection that Msssrs. Marshal P. 
Wilder, Elwanger and Barry of Eochester, and Downing of 
New burg, had visited the University grounds, and gave me the 
benefit of their experience in regard to their uses. Twenty emi- 
nent agriculturists and editors from the Eastern States were taken 
to them that summer, and finally General Horace Capron, from 
the Agricultural Bureau at Washington, fresh from a visit to 
each of the Eastern Agricultural Colleges, made valuable sug- 
gestions respcting our practical work, which suggestions were 
duly communicated to the Board of Regents. The manner in 
which I attempted to carry out the wishes of the Regents will 
appear in the reports of my work, made to them from time to 
time. That they warmly commended it will be seen in their 
official report to the Governor (see page 12 of Regents report for 
1872), where they say : " Professor Carr has been diligently en- 
gaged in lecturing in different parts of the State. He has had 
large and attentive audiences, and it is not too much to say that 
through him thousands have received the benefit of the instruc- 
tion of the Agricultural College of theUniversity." 

The subjoined are true copies of my 

REPORTS OF PROGRESS AND SUGGESTIONS TO THE REGENTS. 

Oakland, November 10, 1870. 
lo Hie President and Board of Regents: Since the date of my last communi- 
cation, and during the summer vacation, I have given a course of fifty-six 
lectures in the Medical Department of the Uinversity (late Toland Medical Col- 
lege). I have also given nine addresses before the State and two County Teachers' 
Institutes, and four addresses on different public occasions. To accomplish this 
I have traveled about two thousand miles; have spoken in San Francisco, Oak- 
land, Pacheco, Marysville, Vallejo, San Jose. Sacramento, Stockton, Jackson and 
Chico, to not lesa than thirty thousand people, endeavoring to interest them in a 
rational development of our industrial interests, and to show the relations of these 
to education, and especially to make the objects and scope of the University and 
its practical value to the State more thoroughly understood. The policy of the 
Board in popularizing the University, by bringing its instructions into direct 
contact with the people, in the admission of young ladies, in the development of 
the Military Department, meets universal approval. In many places the people 
have pledged themselves enthusiastically to its support. In all cases I have 
declined proffered compensation for service or expense, explaining that I was doing 
the work assigned me by you. The people have replied that they will work for the 
University through their representatives. At present, in addition to outside 
work, I am delivering in the University three experimental lectures a week on 
chemistry and its applications, to a class of twenty young men and about the 
same number of young women, which numbers are daily increasing. It was a 
part of my plan to have made a report before the close of the present year to the 
Board of Regents on the industrial and agricultural interests of California, con- 



18 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

taining a catalogue of products, especially of wines, grapes, wine growers, etc., 
for use at home and abroad, " an industrial year book," for 1870. Such an 
exhibit of the capacities and cultures of California, published by authority of the 
Board of Regents, would not only command more of public respect and attention 
than the same information derived from other sources, but would immediately 
demonstrate the activity and usefulness of the University. Since writing the 
foregoing, November 10th, I have given a course of three lectures at Watsonville, 
three at Santa Cruz and two at Sacramento. 



University of California, 
Oakland, July 18, 1871. 
Gentlemen of the Board of Regents : In accordance with your instructions I 
have since the commencement of the present year, in addition to my regular 
University instruction, given a course of twelve experimental lectures in Brayton 
Hall to the Preparatory Department, a course of eleven lectures to the pupils of 
the Deaf and Dumb and Blind Asylum (some of these will enter the University) 
six to the students of the Mechanic Arts College in San Francisco, three addition- 
al lectures in the city, seven in the different towns of Alameda county, eight in 
Stanislaus, four in Contra Costa, five in Sacramento, five in Solano and one in 
Napa county — sixty-one in all. These lectures, with few exceptions, have been 
experimental ones, as fully illustrated as those given in the University, and all 
related to agricultural and educational matters. To accomplish this I have trav- 
eled over three thousand miles. As I could not be absent more than two days at 
a time, exclusive of Sunday, I have been unable to visit the more remote parts of 
the State, and shall occupy a part of the vacation in this work. The lectures 
have invariably been well attended, and I find no lack of appreciation or inter- 
est in the work the University proposes to do for the people of the State, where- 
ever it is understood. I have also made several excursions (at my own expense) 
into different parts of the State for the purpose of obtaining and giving infor- 
mation with regard to important industrial operations. During the collegate 
year I have given three experimental lectures per week, occupying four hours 
time (each lecture requiring some three hours of laboratory work in its prepara- 
tion) to the third class ; in addition, during the past term, one lecture a week on 
health and bygiene to the fourth class. During the past few weeks I have un- 
packed the apparatus belonging to my department, and arranged it as far as 
practicable in the laborator yand new lecture-room. I have also added to the tech- 
nical cabinet several valuable sets of specimens illustrating important arts. In 
addition to the work of the past year, the curriculum of the College of Agricul- 
ture and Mines will call for instruction the coming year in agricultural and an- 
alytical chemistry, assaying and mining, agriculture and horticulture. Of ne- 
cessity this requires more instructional force, in reference to which permit me to 
make one or two suggestions ; First — That the Board allow me to employ a com- 
petent and acceptable assistant for such analytical work and assaying as may be 
required, and to work with the students in the laboratory. Second — That dur- 
ing the last term of the coming year, or a portion of the same, a competent per- 
son be employed to give a course of lectures on mining. The appointment of a 
full Professor of Mining, without an assistant as above indicated, would give no 
aid to the Chair of Chemistry and Department of Agriculture, while the above 
plan would not meet the immediate demands of both. With respect to the ag- 
ricultural grounds, I beg leave to refer the Board to my communication of May 
5, 1870. I cannot express too strongly my conviction that their improvement 
for the specific purposes of agricultural and horticultural instruction and the 
organization of a labor corps of students to do the necessary work, on the plan 
adopted at Cornell, by the Universities of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, and lately 
the new " Bussey School of Agriculture and Horticulture " of Harvard College, 
is of the greatest importance. I know of at least fifty students who woiild have 
been with us next year under such an arrangement ; just such students as Presi- 
dent White reports "among the best" in Cornell University. An Agricultural 
College without farm and gardens, sufficient for experimental purposes, at least, 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 19 

would be like a chemical school without a laboratory. My own experience and 
that of Professors in every one of those thriving institutions founded on the 
Congressional grant is, that whenever the appointments of the Agricultural De- 
partments or Colleges are made as complete as those of Letters, the most gratify- 
ing results have been realized. In conclusion, I would say that a strong desire 
is manifested on the part of the agricultural classes to see this department in 
effective working order, and among them are found some of the most devoted 
and zealous friends of the University. Respectfully submitted. 

EZRA B. CARR, Professor. 



University, Sept. 3, 1872. 
To the chairman of the Committee on Buildings and Grounds — Dear Sir : 
Unless some preparation is made very soon for begining the agricultural work at 
Berkeley, with the coming season it must all go over until a year from this Fall, 
and the delay will be a serious check upon the practical operations for the follow- 
ing year. The Agricultural Professor ought to be on the ground by Christmas, 
at the latest. "Will not the Board authorize the construction of houses and out- 
buildings for the use of that Department, and that the necessary surveys of the 
ground be carried forward early in the coming term. I am driven to urge the 
Board to this because I know that the sentiment in favor of developing the agri- 
cultural department in proportion to the others is strong in the community, and 
because we are so far behind every other institution of the same age on a similar 
foundation. Very respectfully yours, EZRA S. CARR. 



WANTED A DEFINITE PLAN. 

University of California, Sept. 10, 1872. 
To the Honorable Board of Regents : I have considered it my duty as Agri- 
cultural Professor to prepare for the work for my Department by informing myself 
accurately and in detail with regard to the scope, cost and results of similar work 
done in other colleges, and to compare this carefully with the experience of the 
best farmers, fruit growers and stock raisers of the State. The late E. D. Le- 
welling and other competent persons have examined every acre of the University 
domain, with regard to its capacity for special cultures. The plans herewith 
submitted are the result of careful studies and statements of practical men. If 
we are able to offer faciltities for the practical study of horticulture and ag- 
riculture during the next five years and adequately recognize the greatest 
industrial interests of Calfornia in our University, we ought to begin our 
preparations at once and be ready for the rainy season. The ornamental 
planting done three years ago shows how far our nurseries, orchards and arbore- 
tums might have been advanced had the Board authorized me to carry out plans 
submitted at that time.. I beg leave to represent to the Board the immediate and 
imperative wants of the department, with some suggestions as to the way of 
meeting them. First — We want a definite plan to work up to, year after year. 
We have not an acre too much if it is all utilized. I think all the ground not 
required for general purposes walks and drives, should be included in this plan. 
Not less than fifty acres, in my opinion, should be used for orchards and for hor- 
ticulture. Second — Suitable buildings, of which the residence of the Horti- 
cultural Professor should be one. If the Board would appropriate the amount 
intended for a single residence, allowing it to be used in erecting a dwelling 
adapted to agricultural and horticultural work, built as cheaply as is consistent 
with convenience and durability, and put up a plant house or houses in connec- 
tion with it, I think the present needs in that direction would be provided for. 
The situation of these is a matter of great importance. Third — We need a small 
beginnnig in the way of teams, implements and stock. We ought to furnish milk 
and vegetables for the University, and should be able in three or four years to 
show as mnch specimen stock of the best breeds as the farm will support. In 
order to have live fences growing, in order to fasten to the University the interest 
and good will of a large class of our citizens, and to attract students by a labor 
system which will from the start employ and encourage them, I ask the Board 



20 PROFESSOR CARR's REPLY. 

to authorize me to make the necessary beginnings, making such appropriations as 
they deem prudent and just. I could wish that every item of this expenditure 
should commend itself to the judgment and good sense of farmers and practical 
men, and that Berkeley farm-house and its appurtenances might be a model of 
cheapness, good taste and utility. 

I respectfully ask that I be allowed an opportunity to present to the appropri- 
ate Committees the plans in detail, and to compare them with those adopted and 
approved in other institutions. 

Respectfully submitted, E. S. CARE.. 

PROFESSOR BOLANDER TRIES TO GET THE BOARD TO DO SOMETHING. 

No such opportunity to appear before the Board was ever afford - 
de me. I sent to each of them copies of an address upon the 
claims and condition of industrial education, which embodied 
the most important facts in the history of Agricultural Colleges 
elsewhere. As stated before, the special studies in agriculture, 
and agricultural chemistry commenced with the beginning of 
the University year, 1871-2, under the administration of Pres- 
ident Durant, whose interest in the Agricultural College was 
ever my best encouragement. His report to the Department of 
Agriculture for 1871 gave a respectable showing of our educa- 
tional work. During this year I gave a course of two lectures 
a week to the agricultural class upon the Chemistry and Phys- 
ics of Agriculture, three a week to the third University class on 
Chemistry, as the previous year ( see Com. of July, 1871 ), one 
lecture a week to the fourth class ( as per curriculum ) on 
Physiology and Hygiene during the first term. This gave me 
for the first term of the year six lectures a week, and for the 
remaining two terms five, nearly all of which were experimental 
requiring from two to four hours in their preparation. My rov- 
ing commission occupied Saturdays and every day of the short . 
vacations. I was discharging, as best I could, the duties of two 
chairs without assistance, and without a cent of extra appropri- 
ation for expenses or salary. Through the collegiate year 1871-2, 
the Regents say (in their report) that they maintained the "Col- 
lege of Agriculture " with no " diminution of its curriculum, 
and with increased advantages." I felt and still maintain that 
my instruction was the only distinction between the College of 
Agriculture and that of Letters, and that its advantages were 
not increased by adding to my other duties those of another 
Professorship. At my urgent personal solicitation, Mr. Bolander, 
an ex-officio Regent, again called the attention of the Board to 
the importance of commencing experimental and practical work 
upon the grounds. I furnished him a copy of my commnnication 
of May, 1870, which he modified as follows, and presented at a 
meeting of the Board in July, 1872. (See California Teacher, 
August 1872, p. 66) : 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 21 

Mr. Bolander recommended that the Board of Regents locate immediately such 
portions of the University domain as are to he devoted to agriculture and horti- 
oulture, and cause the same to he accurately surveyed and mapped. 

1. For an orchard of specimen fruits of all kinds likely to be successfully and 
profitably raised in some portion of this State, at least five acres. 

2. For vineyard, mulberry, textile and oil-producing plants, four acres, 

3. For culinary vegetables and small fruits, two acres. 

4. For the cultivation of all kinds of useful fruit and shade trees, ten acres. 

5. For the cultivation of indigenous and foreign and mediciual plants, one 
acre. 

6. For the culivation of all our native arborescent plants, to serve as a practical 
introduction to the study of botany for the students, three acres. 

1. That an annual appropriation of .$ 500 be made for the purchase ot all kinds of 
seeds of our indigenous vegetation. These seeds shall he used for exchanges with 
foreign institutions of a similar nature. 

2. That an annual appropriation of $500 be made for the purchase and intro- 
duction of fruit trees not existing in this State. 

3. That an industrial museum be established, with a Phytochemical laboratory, 
to test the usefulness of plants. 

4. That a greenhouse and a small propagating house be erected. 

5. That a competent and scientific gardner be employed to lay out the grounds 
and take charge of the entire work. 

6. That the perservation, drying and packing of all kinds of fruit be made 
a special subject of investigation. 

7. That vinegar and wine making, silk culture, distillation of volatile oils, 
and paper making be taught in connection with agriculture and horticulture. 

8. That it shall be the duty of the Professor of Agriculture to supreintend 
all operations connected with the experimental gardens, to open correspondence 
with acclimatization societies and institutions of like purpose in foreign countries, 
and to report anmially to the Board of Regents on the progress and conditions of 
the gardens. These reports shall be published at once and distributed at large. 

9. That the students be allowed to work a certain length of time during the 
day, and be compensated therefor, 

10. That the surplus of plants raised be distributed throughout the State, to 
such farmers and persons who are willing to plant the same, and to report 
annually on their condition. 

11. That regular daily observations be made on climatic changes. 

These resolutions were temporarily laid on the table. On the 
3d of September I again ventured to urge the prosecution of this 
work upon the Chairman of the Committee on Buildings and 
Grounds (Dr. Merritt), and again upon the Board, September 
10th. At a meeting of the Board, September 18, 1872, Mr. 
Bolander's resolutions were ordered placed on file, and, on motion 
of Kegent Bolander, " the Building Committee were authorized to 
have a greenhouse constructed at an expense not to exceed $ 500," 
and it was also resolved that the Professor of Agriculture " be 
authorized to employ a gardener at a compensation not to exceed 
$100 per month." (See California Teacher, October, 1872, p. 
133.) 

THE CIRCUMLOCUTION OFFICE. 

I lost no time in asking to have the locations assigned for these 
purposes. But the Fall term of 1872 had given us a new Presi- 
dent, D. C. Gilman, whose active duties were to commence with 



22 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

the following Winter term. I ordered the mill work and sash for 
the greenhouse, selected a gardener, and waited for permission to 
"move on." Was advised to wait for President Gilman's direc- 
tions. During his hurried visit to us before his inauguration I 
had laid before him the whole position of the Agricultural Col- 
lege, the promises I had been making the people concerning it, 
etc. I gave him the plans of the grounds, which embodied three 
years careful study of their soils, exposures and the cultures 
practicable for this locality. I also gave him the plans for the 
equipment of the rooms assigned to the Agricultural Department, 
on the main floor of the nearly completed Agricultural College 
building. At the laying of the corner stone of that building, 
the orator of the day, Bev. Mr. Stebbins, had spoken of every- 
thing which the University was to do except to make educated 
farmers and mechanics. The new President, in his inaugural 
speech, given November 7, 1872, on the " building of the Uni- 
versity," found a place to compliment the geological survey, the 
Overland Magazine, even, but none for a word of encourage- 
ment to the young lady students who sat before him — none for 
the long delayed Colleges of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. 
I found it extremely difficult to get a hearing from the President 
on any subject connected with the practical development of the 
grounds. He constantly referred me to the Committee. If I 
went to the Committee on Grounds, or its Chairman, I was re- 
ferred to President Gilman. Prof. Grey of Harvard, who was 
then planning and perfecting the Cambridge arboretum, was on 
this Coast at the time of Gilman's appointment, and had urged 
me, as everyone interested in these subjects had been doing for 
three years, to exhibit the great advantages possessed here for 
arboriculture. Thinking his opinion would have more weight 
than my own importunities, I asked him to write President Gil- 
man as urgently as he could in this behalf. He replied to me 
from the Smithsonian Institution, April 14, 1873, saying that he 
would use "all the knowledge and influence he possessed to avert 
the danger of allowing our great opportunities at a critical per- 
iod to pass unimproved." (See Grey's letter, quoted in "Begent's 
Biennial Keport, '"72-3," page 44.) 

Meanwhile, during the early part of the planting season, gar- 
dener and greenhouse waited upon his decisions. Nothing what- 
ever was done, until the acceptance by the Board of Mr. Nolan's 
donation, through me, of duplicates of every tree and shrub 
grown in his large nursery, and the appropriation of $400 to 
enable me to remove and set them out, compelled action. 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 23 

STARTING AN ARBORETUM. 

Before the 1st of April I had plowed and subsoiled the part 
of the grounds upon which permission had been given me to 
plant the Nolan collection, had planted eighty species of conif- 
erous trees, thirty of eucalyptus, twenty-seven of acacia, and a 
very large collection of deciduous trees and shrubs, the additional 
gifts of Messrs Hoag and Williamson of Sacramento, Sanderson 
of San Jose, Mr. Kelsey of Oakland and others, in all three hundred 
species and seven hundred specimens. As far as soil and exposure 
would admit they were planted in accordance with their natural 
orders, the pines, firs, cypresses, etc., forming distinct sections. 
Spaces were left for foreign allies. Each plant was labeled with 
the scientific and common name, habitate and a number corres- 
ponding to that on a catalogue, in order that the rate of growth, 
size and other important facts could afterward be determined. 
The publication of Dr. Bolanders recommendations, with similar 
items, called out equally generous offers from other prominent 
horticulturalists. Mr. Lewelling of San Lorenzo offering us du- 
plicates of the varieties in his extensive orchards ; Mr. Nicholson 
and other vineyardists of their vines. Consulting the President, 
I was advised " to decline these gifts for the present year at 
least, there being absolutely no money at command for these 
purposes." Observe here, that I had been authorized to employ 
a gardener at #100. a month, which I had not done, simply 
because I was not authorized to provide him with tools, manures, 
etc., or to locate the ground for his operations, and had not used 
a cent of that appropriation. During my entire incumbency the 
sum of four hundred dollars has been expended under my direc- 
tion. The sum of $20,964, was expended during this term by 
the Committee on Buildings and grounds, under the direction of 
their Chairman, Dr. Merritt, for ornamental improvements 
having no reference to agriculture or horticulture. 

The University site was laid out for the College of California 
by Fred Law Olms tead of the New York Central Park. The 
present roads, etc., were made on that plan. At the time of my 
appointment Mr. Lowe of San Jose was laying out the grounds as 
a landscape garden, without any reference to the requirements 
of an Agricultural College. William Hammond Hall, landscape 
engineer of San Francisco, is understood to be now employed in 
developing those grounds as an educational park. His plans 
will require an expendature of $40,000. for the next two years, 
while competant experts estimate the cost when finished to be 
not less than $80,000. The plan speaks for itself ; it is worthy 
of praise for its aesthetic or ornamental uses, and for these alone. 



24 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

That the Regents have not seriously contemplated the utilization 
of any considerable part of those grounds is evident from the 
sale of an important portion (112 acres), from their official an- 
nouncements, from the unnecessary delay and virtual indorse- 
ment of the most costly and purely ornamental plan which has 
been submitted. 

THE GTLMAN UNIVERSITY. 

Soon after the inauguration of President Gilman it became 
evident that he had not only no sympathy with the Agricultural 
College, but that he would use all his influence to divert its means 
into other channels. He pronounced the organization so care- 
fully studied by acting President Le Conte as " extremely faulty 
and defective," and in the Register, soon after published wiped 
out the College of Agriculture, as such, making an agricultural 
" course of study " one of several not essential to any degree con- 
ferred by the University. So marked was this change that when 
the head of the Agricultural Department at Washington wrote to 
me for the statement of the condition and progress of our Agricul- 
ltura College, to include in his report to Congress for 1872, and I 
replied by sending the register (not feeling authorized to speak 
for the President or Regents), he immediately replied : " What I 
want is a register or catalogue or other document concerning 
your Agricultural College. Please fill the enclosed blanks, an- 
swers to specific questions which will give the desired informa- 
tion/' I gave the letter and blanks to President Gilman, with a 
copy of the previous report made under President Durant. 

When the Agricultural report was distributed the informa- 
tion concerning our Industrial College of Agriculture and the 
Mechanic Arts was confined to two brief paragraphs, as follows: 
" The most important change made in this College during the 
present year is the election of Daniel C. Gilman, President of the 
Univesity." " President Gilman is a graduate of Yale College, 
and was for several years Professor in the scientific school of that 
college. He has spent some time in Germany in the study of 
science in Berlin. His inaugural address was delivered at Oak- 
land, November 7, 1872, and is replete with practical observations 
on the principal and character or the education which our re- 
public demands." " The farm has not been improved," etc. 
" Students are not instructed in agriculture outside of the school- 
room." (See Agricultural Report for 1872.) 

THE NEW MORRILL BILL. 

About this time the proposition to give large additional giants 
of land to further endow such Colleges as had complied with the 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 25 

terms of the former grant was brought before Congress. The 
passage of the new Morrill bill would give us an additional in- 
come of over $30,000 per annum : but its conditions were 
exceedingly stringent, and under it many of the abuses which 
had prevailed in the execution of the former bill would be rem- 
edied. The sale of lands and care of accruing funds was to be 
left in the hands of the National Government. 

With the first publication of Morrill's new bill on this coast 
an article appeared to show that the object of the former bill 
was not to promote industrial but general scientific and literary 
training. I replied controverting the position, and set myself 
more earnestly than ever to meet the requirements of the new 
grant by proving our good intentions by some good works. The 
time was drawing near for the removal of the University to its 
permanent home at Berkeley. The Professors appointed before 
1872 had each been promised residences free of rent, and this 
promise being renewed I asked for the erection of a plain farm 
house, with suitable outbuildings, for my own accupation, that 
1 might economize time by giving my personal supervision to 
the work of my department. I was informed that houses would 
be built simultaneously with the College of Letters. Packages 
of choice plants^ seeds, etc., were frequently arriving, for which 
I could get no care or protection. In the summer of '73 beds of 
ramie, jute, etc., a very choice lot of vines, and the most com- 
plete collection of flowering bulbs which has ever been made on 
this coast were destroyed by pigs. No part of the grounds were 
excluded from public intrusion, and no part was set aside except 
for picnic purposes. It should be remembered that all this time 
a larger sum of money than I had asked for was employed for 
the care of the grounds under Dr. Merritt's directions. 

THE HAYSEED DIPLOMAS. 

At the "Commencement" of 1873 the students of what under 
the administration of President LeConte and Durant had been a 
College of Agriculture completed their prescribed four years 
course and presented themselves for graduation. Fair parch- 
ments of handsome size, engraved and decorated, bearing the 
signatures of all the Faculty j awaited the students of the Col- 
lege of Letters. Small sheets of paper parchment, more like 
school certificates than college diplomas, signed by President 
Gilman and three members of the Faculty, were presented to the 
graduates in Agriculture. The students were justly indignant, 
but were somewhat mollified by finding that this had been done 
without the knowledge or consent of their late teachers. This 
agricultural experiment was not repeated, the Diplomas having 



26 PROFESSOR CARR's REPLY. 

told their own story before the Legislative Committee in connec- 
tion with other evidence taken. 

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE RUN INTO THE GROUND. 

The University year of 1873-4 was to open at Berkeley. The 
distribution of rooms for the use of the various professors who 
were to occupy the College of Agriculture had long before been 
made, by common consent of the Faculty and Building commit- 
tee, and appropriate fiittings and furnishings were either complet- 
ed or in progress, when the President informed me that the rooms 
designed for the agricultural department would be required for 
other purposes. All my plans for exhibiting rare and valuable 
plants and conducting experiments to which light and heat were 
essential where thus summarily overthrown by relegating the 
accomodations into the north end of the basement. I remon- 
strated strongly ; said " I should be ashamed to take the farmers 
of the state through the buildings and exhibit such accommoda- 
tions for the Agricultural College." The paragraph on page 69 
of the Regents' statement to the Joint Committee of the Legis- 
lature is untrue. 

My remonstrances were made to the President, as my communi- 
cations usually were after his appointment. If the Board never 
received "any expression of my wishes," it was not my fault. 
The Regents say (also on page 68 of their statement) that "on 
the removal to Berkeley the sum of $500 was placed at my dis- 
posal to secure the aid of competent lecturers during the year 
in matters of practical agriculture." This is not true. I never 
heard of this except in the pages referred to, and never knowingly 
had a cent at my disposal for these purposes. (See following letter 
to Regents April 6, 1874.) I did what I could to make the base- 
ment rooms assigned to my use presentable before the visit of 
the Legislative Committees, occupying the holidays in furnish- 
ing them with my own library and collections. The lecture- 
room, without fire, was exceedingly cold and damp during the 
rainy season. 

THE GRANGES AND MECHANICS TAKE UP THE MATTER. 

In the Winter of 1873-4 a Committee of the State Grange 
and Mechanics' Deliberative Assembly respectfully memorialized 
the Legislature on the subject of the Agricultural and Mechanic 
Arts Colleges. The Committee spoke approvingly of what had 
been done in other directions, and asked, in addition to the ap- 
propriation for current expenses, that the sum of $135,000 
should be specifically appropriated to the practical work of the 
Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges. The President and mem- 
bers of the Board visited Sacramento, and by addresses, personal 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 27 

efforts and newspaper articles and pamphlets endeavored to show 
that the memorialists were in error and that Agricultural and 
Mechanical Colleges were failures. Several Committees from 
the Legislature visited Berkeley to examine into the administra- 
tion and workings of the institution, and with singular unanimi- 
ty, reported in favor of the memorialists. The Education Com- 
mittee, in their report took issue with the President on his 
presentation of the Industrial College. Learning that I was 
accused of having furnished these Committees with informa- 
tion, and as the matter of University reform was getting mixed 
up with the Merritt investigation, I made an explanation to the 
Advisory Committee of the Regents, no testimony from me 
having been called for by any Committee of the Legislature up 
to that time. 

I showed them that I had no connection whatever with the 
Legislative proceedings in the matter, except such as have neces- 
sarily resulted from the kind of service in which I have been em- 
ployed ; that while I had endeavored to carry out the intentions 
of the Board, as first explained to me by Regents Tompkins and 
Fitzgerald, and afterward by formal resolutions and instructions, 
I had as faithfully represented the sentiments of the people to 
them, and had repeatedly placed before them in writing the 
measures which had been urged upon me as important to secure 
a cordial feeling toward the University and its work ; that I had 
had every reason to believe that the manner in which I had 
represented the aims and objects of the University were approv- 
ed by the Regents and by the public ; that I had been placed 
without intention on the part of the Regents in the difficult 
position of reconciling the various published announcements of 
the Regents with the dormant condition of the Agricultural 
College, and that I had been placed before the public in the po- 
sition of apparent responsibility without the power to meet it. 
Of this, the resolution authorizing me to emplo} r a gardner, 
without providing materials for the prosecution of his work, or 
locating grounds for his operations, was an illustration. In con- 
clusion I said : " In the peculiar relation which the transference 
of the Agricultural College ' from the closet to the field ' has 
placed me toward the people of this State, I have neither been 
disloyal to their interests nor to yours, but have always acted on 
the belief that these were identical. If loyalty to the interests 
of industrial education, to which I have given the best years of 
my life, and mean to give what remains of it, is treason to the 
University, or if it is so construed by your honorable body, I 
must plead guilty to the charge." 



28 PROFESSOR CARR's REPLY. - 

Meanwhile the Regents (February 17, 1874,) memorialized the 
Legislature for another Committee — a joint Committee — with 
power to send for persons and papers, etc., to inquire into the 
defects of their stewardship and the proper remedy. The Com- 
mittee arrived on the 22d, sent for the Professor of Agriculture, 
who was brought before them and sworn, but before any testi- 
mony was taken, an adjournment was made to Sacramento, at 
the request of the Begents, the Committee deciding, first — to 
receive the statement of the Board Committee, Eegents and 
President, winding up this stage of the investigation (?) with a 
banquet at Regent Ralston's. 

At this juncture, the Professor of Agriculture was informed 
that the Regents contemplated his summary removal on the 
ground of disloyalty to his employers. The charge of incom- 
petency was not made. The Secretary addressed to me a letter 
of inquiry as to what, in my opinion, " was feasible for the im- 
provement for instruction in agriculture and horticulture," as if 
no suggestions on that subject had ever been presented to them. 
I replied by referring them to former communications, with some 
new suggestions ; all of which was embodied in their " state- 
ments " dated March 3, 1874, and published in pamphlet form. 
(See pages 14, 15 and 16.) The House Committee on Education 
had reported favorably to a change in the Management of the 
University, on the ground that the various callings, interests and 
sections of the State were not represented in the Board, eigh- 
teen of its twenty-two members being lawyers and business men 
having their offices in San Francisco. The Committee said, 
" All admit that the Professor of Agriculture is not only a 
scientist, but a thoroughly practical instructor. He should live 
on the ground, and students should be allowed to labor, thereby 
applying science under the direction of their instructor." 

THE SUBJECT OF MANUAL LABOR. 

Had been repeatedly brought before the Board, both before and 
after our removal to Berkeley, by the application of students 
for work, the favorable testimony of other institutions, notably 
Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan and Illinois, and in various 
other ways. President Gilman invariably discouraged it in all 
my intercourse with him, and the little work which students 
have been permitted to do has had no connection with agricul- 
tural instruction. I shall show in another place that I spared no 
pains to call attention to the requirements of the law in this 
respect. The Legislative Committee were strongly in favor of 
its immediate adoption. 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 29 

ARE THE REGENTS HONORABLE MEN ? 

Near the close of the legislative session the House Committee on 
Education reported a bill embodying their views of the changes 
to be desired, etc. The disposition of the bill will be seen from 
the following communication from its chairman, A. Higbie, to 
W. H. Baxter, one of the Grange memorialists, after the Re- 
gents had asked for my resignation. Under date of July 30, 
1874, he says : " When the bill, proposing a radical charge in 
the Board of Regents was introduced and referred to the Com- 
mittee on Education, Regent Dwinelle and others were very 
active for its defeat." 

" I had a lengthy conversation with Dwinelle, in which he ad- 
mitted that he and other Regents had been opposed to Professor 
Carr ; but since the investigation of the University matters 
before the Committee at Sacramento, he and other Regents were 
fully satisfied with him, believing that the cause of the difficulty 
and disaffection was found in Professor Swinton. While he ad- 
mitted the justice of the bill, he thought that enough had beeu 
said and done for one session. I replied that too much had al- 
ready been said and done, and that he was one of the active 
parties : that he had threatened to a member of the Committee 
on Education that Carr had to go out — meaning, as understood, 
that the Chair of Agriculture would be vacated. I further stat- 
ed, that the people, the Committee of Investigation from both 
Houses, as well as the Committee on Education were not satisfied 
with the management of the University, and especially with the 
Agricultural Department ; therefore the proposed plan to select 
Regents representing the various callings and interests of the 
State. He replied, " We now understand things better than we 
did, and I pledge you my word on my own behalf and on the 
behalf of the Board of Regents, that no attempt shall be made 
to remove the Professor of Agriculture only for such causes as 
would remove a Professor from any Chair." My reply was, 
"Judge, if you feel free to say that this pledge shall be faithfully 
kept, the friends of the bill will not urge it ; if not, the bill will 
pass in less than one hour." Said the Judge, " I feel free to say 
that this pledge shall be kept." I replied, " I hope it will, not 
only for the benefit of the Agricultural Department of the Uni- 
versity, but for the credit of the Regents." 

" In a few moments after this conversation with Regent Dwinelle, 
Alfred A. Cohen of Alameda sent for me, wishing an interview 
with me on the same subject, viz : Professor Carr and the Chair 
of Agriculture. Our conversation was very much like that be- 



30 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

tween myself and Kegent Dwinelle. He said he was prepared 
to say to me that the pledge made by Dwinelle should be faith- 
fully kept, in case the friends of the new bill would not urge 
it. My reply was, "Omnia justicia." So the friends of the bill, 
thinking that the results contemplated therein, viz : justice to 
Professor Carr, and a more careful consideration of the College 
of Agriculture, would be secured by the action of the Kegents 
under these pledges, concluded not to urge it, predicating their 
action on the pledges made by the gentlemen just named." 

QUESTIONS SENT BY CONGRESS. 

While these questions were pending I received, between the 
months of December and April, several urgent requests from 
Commissioner Watts, of the Agricultural Department, at 
Washington for the necessary information to fill the report from 
our State for the general account of the Industrial Colleges in 
his forthcoming volume. The two first I gave or sent to the 
President and so stated to the Commissioner. The third said : 
" I have written to President Grillman and received no reply." 
Still more important were the questions sent by Congress through 
the Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, James 
Morrow. 

State what is the total value of the property of your institution. 
State the cost of each building and the uses to which it is put. 
State from what fund, national or other, each building has been paid for. 
State what amount has been expended from the years 1862-1874, inclusive, 
for — 

An an experimental farm — class "A." 

A machine shop — class " B." 
State what, under class "A," has been the total expenditure for actual instruc" 
tion in — 

Branches relating to agriculture. 

Theory and Practice of Agriculture, 

Chemistry applied to Agriculture. 

Botany, Horticulture and Forestry. 

Animal Physiology, Zoology and Breeding of Animals. 

Veterinary practice. 

Economic Entomology and insects injurious to vegetation 

Field surveying, leveling, and mathematics pertaining thereto. 

Irrigation. 

Geology, general and agriculture. 

English language. 

Physics and Natural Philosophy. 

Moral Philosophy. 

American and Modern History. 

Social and Sanitary Science. 
State under class "B," what is the total expenditure for actual instruction in 
branches relating to the mechanic^ arts, as follows : 

Dynamical engineering. 

Mechanical engineering. 

Theory and practice of machine construction. 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 31 

Mathematics applied to machine construction. 
Mechanical draughting, 
^ree hand industrial drawing. 

chemistry applied to manufacturing, mining and metallurgy. 
tLysics and natural philosphy. 
Building and architecture. 
Mining processes and methods. 
State what you have for necessary equipment in branches relating to agricul- 
ture, viz : 

' Fine stock, implements and machinery, models, veterinary, surveying and 
; leveling instruments, etc., etc. 

Stat* the annual and total investments on account of your experimental farm 
and machine shops. 

The Professors have also been called upon to state what 
amount of instruction and expenditure is bestowed upon branches 
other than those of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in the sever- 
al institutions ; the names, titles, duties and salaries of President 
and each Professor; what is the amount of income derived from 
donations and legacies ; the total income, number of students, 
and number in each course ; subsequent occupation of students 
as far as known ; and, finally, " Has your institution in good 
faith performed all the conditions and requirements of the statute 
of July, 1862, and the Acts supplementary thereto ? If not, 
state for what cause," etc. As I could not state "for what 
cause " — having no knowledge of the real state of the finances, 
and the Regents having given want of means as the only reason 
for delay, 1 referred the Congressional questions to them. I 
have since been informed that no satisfactory replies were made. 
The questions indicate what the National Government expected 
the Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges to do and teach. 

During this time, my old colleagues in the efforts to secure the 
original grant were writing from Missouri, Wisconsin and Illinois, 
urging me to help in procuring the proposed new benefaction. 
Though I felt that we were not meeting reasonable expectations. 
I was unable to prove it, the Regents contradictory and 
self-condemning statements not having then appeared. Hence, I 
left it with the Regents to clear or convict themselves before the 
Legislatures of the State and Nation, hoping by this course 
not to jeopardize the appropriations from either source, or to 
fail in giving the Regents the benefit of every doubt. 

LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATION. 

The Legislature appropriated $50,000 for the current expen- 
ses of the two following years, and $30,000 for the practical 
development of the Agricultural and Mechanical Departments. 
After the adjournment, Mr. Moulder resigned the office of Sec- 
retary and became Land Agent. The law requires that " a 



32 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

practical agriculturist must be chosen by the Board." R. E. C. 
Stearns, an estimable gentleman and scientist of San Francisco, 
late Clerk of the Harbor Commission, was chosen at Mr. Fried- 
landers urgent request. A vacancy occurring in the Board, D. 0. 
Mills, late President of the Bank of California, was appointed by 
Governor Booth, though Mr. Ralston, President of the Bank and 
Treasurer of the University, was already a member. The other 
vacancies occurring during the year were filled by Governor Booth 
in the appointments of J. Mora Moss, whose term of service will 
be twenty-two years ; J. W. Winans and J. M. Hamilton. Upon 
the adjournment of the Legislature, Mr. Higbei, late Chairman 
of the Educational Committee, called upon and informed me 
that my way had been made straight by the action of the Com- 
mittee, and that no further obstructions would be made to the 
progress of the Agricultural Department. I therefore sent 
another communication to the Board, with respect to gardener, 
etc., as follows : 

University of California, April 6tb, 1874. 

Gentlemen of the Board of Regents, I see from the "Statement of the Board 
of Regents (page 68) that on the removal to Berkeley, the sum of $600 was placed 
at the disposal of the Professor of Agriculture to secure the aid of competent 
experts as occasional lecturers during the year, as this is the only intimation I 
have ever received of this action, I would respectfully ask for further information, 
and especially whether it is desired to have such lectures given during the present 
collegiate year." 

Allow me to state that the services of a competent gardener, and of a very well 
trained assistant for general work in gardening are at command whenever the 
Board are ready to authorize the prosecution of the work discontinued last year: 
If the grounds for practical operations, propagating house, etc., have been loca- 
ted, I have not been informed of it. Valuable seeds have been sent from European 
Agricultural Stations, which will be worthless unless ussd the present season. It 
is very desirable to obtain for experiment a few of the more valuable timber 
trees of the east, and this is the proper time for sending them. I should be grati- 
fied to have the ground immediately contiguous to the agricultural or south 
college building prepared for ornamental planting, (that being the only point 
where waler can now be commanded) in such manner as will not obstruct the view 
or require after modification. Nothing will grow in the drift material with 
which the original surface has been covered to the depth of several feet, except 
the coarsest weed.8. 

"I have received from the Chairman of the Committee on Education and 
Labor," in the House of Representatives a request for a statement of our condi- 
tion and progress in practical operations, and from other sources we are informed 
that a Congressional Committee will probably visit all the institutions which have 
received the benefit of the grant of the National Government sometime during the 
summer. Wishing to make as good a showing as possible, and realizing that 
the working season is nearly over for this year, I will make no apology for asking 
early attention to these subjects on the part of the Board." 

Respectfully yours, E. S. CARR. 



PKOFESSOR CARR's REPLY. 33 

SECRETARY STEARNS' REPLY. 



OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 

( University of California, 
I San Francisco, April 17th, 1874. 
Ezra S. Can', Dear Sir . — The Committee to whom was referred your recent 
communication to the Board of Regents, would like to have you give them in 
writing some additional data, in order that they may be able in the most complete 
and satisfactory way to bring the subject of Agricultural Education before the 
Board. First. — Will you give them your plan for out-door work — stating it in 
as much detail as possible so the Board may understand just what you would like 
to see done when the outlays you ask for are authorized. Second. — Will you 
state what improvements if any you would like to see made in the indoor instruc- 
tions pertaining to Agriculture. Third. — Will you suggest the names of persona 
whom you would like to have secured as lecturers in the special cultures to which 
you have referred. In your reply you need not feel restricted in space — but 
rather at liberty to open the whole subject as freely as possible. The communi- 
cation of any printed documents on the subject of Agricultural Education else- 
where will be acceptable to the Committee, and especially some facts respecting 
Agricultural Experimental stations in Europe. The Committee will meet again 
on Tuesday morning when it is important to receive your reply. The Board 
has received the communication which you refer to from Washington, and pro- 
pose to make an answer to it. Respectfully yours, 

ROBERT E. C. STEARNS, Secretary. 

This application for information, and printed documents on 
the subject of Agricultural Education to an incompetent party, 
by those who know so well what Agricultural Education is at 
home and abroad, and who as stated, by Governors Booth and 
Haight on the 11th inst., had decided "long ago " to remove said 
party, was promptly answered. 

Oakland, September 19th, 1874. 
R. E. C. STEARNS, Secretary of Board of Regents. 
Yours of the 17th inst. is received. In reply I would say that very careful 
detailed studies were made of the entire University domain with reference to its 
capacity for Agricultural and Horticultural purposes, in the year 1870 and 1S71, 
in which I was assisted by Elisha Lewelling, Mr. Hart Hyatt, and other special 
culturists whose long experience on this coast and great success entitle them to be 
considered authorities on these subjects. The lands then owned by the Uni- 
versity and afterwards sold to Mrs. Brayton were regarded as well adapted to the 
purposes of an experimental station or farm on account of the sheltered position, 
water supply, etc. Mr. Lewelling was then a member of the Legislature, and 
believed it practicable through public and private donations to bring the Univer- 
sity domain up to six hundred acres, "little enough " as he expressed it, " for a 
great State like California." He and many others with whom I conversed about 
the Agricultural College looked to the enlargement of the domain as necessary." 
"The plans and studies referred to, including the kind of soil, exposure, drain- 
age, etc., of this and contiguous parcels of land were necessary preliminaries to 
intelligent work, if we should carry out the principles which have generally 
been adopted elsewhere. I did not consider that we had land enough to carry 
on stock raising to any great extent, but was satisfied that with that exception, 
we could do all that is essential to a thorough Agricultural education on the 
property then owned by the University. After the sale of the portion lying up 
and along Strawberry Creek, and the death of Mr. Lewelling, my efforts were 
chiefly directed to carrying forward the Horticultural and experimental work ; 
on a smaller scale and mainly to the following points. [See Appendix, a.] 



34 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

First. — A specimen orchard, (see my communications to the Board of Regents 
1870 and 1871,) and also the enclosed statement of School of Horticulture of 
Illinois Industrial University. 

I "wished this orchard to display all the various methods of training trees, as 
standards, or on espaliers and supports, and to have it contain one or more speci- 
mens of every kind of fruit or nut which can be grown in our climate without 
artificial heat. Second. — A Garden of Economic Botany, in which a few 
specimens of all useful plants shomld be arranged as in one section of the Garden 
of Plants at Paris, i. e., according to their uses as dyes, textiles, medicines, etc., 
(an excellent description of this is given in Robinson "s Parks and Gardens of 
Paris.) I have received lists of these plants from Professor Milne-Edwards, the 
director in chief. Third. — An Arboretum,, and Botanic Garden which while for- 
ming a part of the ornamental planting, would also form a grand collection of trees 
and shrubs, like that to which Dr. Grey of Harvard College is now giving his exclu- 
sive care, and to which one hundred acres of the most valuable property is devoted. 
I would have the aboretum so arranged and catalogued that the visitor or student 
could go through it as through a piciure gallery, determing the rate of growth, 
uses and other important facts concerning each species. Fourth. — To make a be- 
ginning in Forestry, by rehabilitating the hill land, as soon as a water supply is 
provided. By putting in Redwood and Fir trees near the reservoir and distribu- 
ting points, and enlarging from these centers year by year we should be able to 
re-clothe the hills without continued irrigation. The grounds allotted to these 
purposes should not be obstruded upon more ornamental portions, but they should 
be convenient of access both to students and visitors. I shall greatly regret, if 
the requirements of an "Educational Park" prevent the adoption of plans 
which I have previously submitted, not because they are mine "but because they 
embody the views of the highest authorities in practical and aesthetic horticul- 
ture, which I have been at great pains to obtain. Messrs. Wilder, Downing, Ell- 
wanger and Barry of Rochester, Mr. Robinson of the "Garden" and many 
other experts, Patrick Quinn, the most successful small fruit cnlturist in the 
country, have each given to me on the spot, the benefit of their judgement and 
experience. With entire unanimity ', the grounds on both sides of both ravines, 
including from two to three acres above their confluence, (leaving a chance for 
the future excavation of a small lake or pond at thai 'point) down to the west line 
of the domain, has been considered as the best adapted to Agricultural and Hor- 
ticultural work. Nearly all the parties referred to have suggested the desirable- 
ness of enlarging our borders in a westerly direction. If roads of importance 
must traverse this part of the domain, I would conceal by plantations the ruder 
and more experimental plots, orchards and gardens would need no other conceal- 
ments than enclosing hedges, which I would have exhibit all our best hedge 
plants, native and foreign. One of the most beautiful objects in California is the 
wild Cherry hedge of Mr. Wheeler of San Mateo, now fifteen feet high . Such 
hedges, following by curved lines the natural divisions uf the surface could not 
mar the general effect. So of avt-nues of walnut, olive or fig trees. The exact 
permanent location of grounds for these purposes, as well as those more strictly 
Agrcultural, having been determined by the Board, the work I would recom- 
mend for the next two years would be as follows : 

First. — The immediate organizntion of a students labor corps into two divisi- 
ons. First. — The Educational division, where the labor is applied directly in 
connection with Agricultural and Horticultural instruction. And Second. — 
The Remunerative division, employed in grading and such work as has hitherto 
been employed at a cost of from lour to six thousand dollars per annum. Both 
these divisions should be enrolled for regular work, not to be remitted without 
excuse, either for two hours a day, or four hours on alternate days, (see docu- 
ment of other colleges) and to be performed under the Superintendence of the 
Agricultural Professor and Gardener in the one case, of the Secretary or other 
responsible officers in the other. For each dsy's work the student should receive 
a check to be paid on presentation to the Secretary at the end of the month or 
term. 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 35 

Second. — I wonld have all the land assigned for Agricultural and Horticultural 
purposes ploughed deeply and well, this spring, for eradication of weeds, and of 
gophers and squirrels who destroyed last year more than it would cost to exter- 
minate them. I would have this ploughing repeated in the fall, using such 
fertilizers ns may be advisable, preliminary to the permanent orchard work. 

Third. — T would have the propagating house already provided for, put up in 
connection with the farm-house, in case the latter is occupied by the Professor of 
Agriculture, for the sake of economy and protection. I would have both these 
erected as soon as practicable. The plan of farm-house submitted last year to 
Messrs. Tower and Ough, they estimated to cost $4,000. House, small barn and 
fence for barn yard to cost $4,500. 

Fourth. — The Educational labor corps I would first employ in finishing and 
planting the border around the Agricultural College, that it may be completed 
before Comencement. Then, in laying out beds, walks, etc., in Economic gar- 
den and in work on orchard ground. I would have a hundred thousand seed- 
lings and cuttings prepared for use another year. The other labor corps I would 
employ in grubbing out poison oak, in grading, clearing out grounds along the 
banks, care of present plantations, road work etc., in the mechanical work 
of making gates, rustic bridges, fences, etc., thus making these two departments 
complement each other. 

Fifth. — I would put a narrow coping of brick or artificial stone (a good specimen 
of which may be seen at Mr. Spaulding's place, in Oakland,) laid around the 
Agricultural College, within which I would have a variety of choice bedding 
plants. As soon as the grading is finished, I would have the ornamental plant- 
ing around both edifices pushed with vigor, water being accessible at these 
points. I would" have preparation made for sowing a lawn of moderate extent, 
at the proper season. 

Sixth. — I would employ Robert Turnbull as gardtner as soon as his services can 
be obtiined, and Wm. Brennan as laborer, forthwith. I would employ no other 
work of outsiders, except for teaming and ploughing as a temporary expedient. 

In respect to indoor instruction, I would like to have Dr. Wm. Gibbons, of 
Alameda, give from four to six lectures on insects injurious to vegetation, this 
term; also to secure (later,) two lectures from Mr. Livingston Stoue, on Fish 
Culture in California, and two from Dr. John Strentzel, of Martinez, on the 
culture of the Orange and the Fig. One or more from Prof. Bolander, on Indi- 
genous Grasses would be very acceptable. This would do for the present year. 

Next year, in addition to the foregoing, we ought to have six lectures on 
Vineyard culture and wine making, and a short c turse on Veterinary Science. 
I am not prepared to suggest names, but will do so, hereafter, if desired. 

We ought also to have instruction in Descriptive Botany, from some one 
familiar with the Flora of this coast, and I feel assured, that with this and the 
special lectures provided for, and the holding of a Farmers' Institute, we shall 
create a warm interest in the Agricultural community and increase the number 
of students. 

I enclose the last pamphlet from Illinois Industrial University, the Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College, plans of grounds and a copy of the last Depart- 
ment report. Also, a request now made for the fourth time from said Depart- 
ment. 

It is certain that Agricultural Stations do not obviate the neceasity of Agricul- 
tural Colleges, on the broad bases of that at Hohenheim, Wurtemberg, (see p. 
144 of Dr. Hoyi's enclosed report,) or of Illinois and Massachusetts Agricultural 
Colleges in our own country, but meet load demands for both experiments and 
instruction. They are becoming more and more specially related to local indus- 
tries, such as the beet sugar, for instance. (There are forty stations in Germany 
for beet sugar alone,) I hope we may see three or four such stations on this 
coast, connected with wine, silk, and sugar manufactories, and I hope to demon- 
strate their utility in our University work. 

Regretting that time does not permit me to gather more information for your 
immediate use, I remain Very cordially yours, EZRA S. CARR. 



36 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

This communication was accompained by a carefully prepared 
agricultural and horticultural map of the grounds, with estimates 
of the cost of farm building, out-houses, implements, team, 
materials, labor, etc., limited by the legislative appropriation for 
these purposes as follows : 

Building and outhouses, exclusive of prorogating house $5,500 to $6,500 

Team and implements 1,500 to 2,000 

Stock for garden and grounds 1,000 to 2,000 

Labor of all kinds for Agricultural, Horticultnral and Botanical 
purposes, including gardeners', students' and other labor, 

exclusive of grading roads 6,000 to 8.000 

Incidentals '. 1,000 to 1.500 

$15,000 $20,000 
It will be remembered that the Legislative appropriation for 
practical purposes was $30,000. Had the mechanical labor of 
students been employed on buildings and propagating houses, as 
recommended, the above estimates would have been sufficient, 
in case either the larger or smaller total expenditure was reached. 
A few days later Mr. Ellis of Sacramento, was appointed gar- 
dener, with a salary of $125 and a promise of increase, a matter 
about which I had not been consulted, and the Secretary after- 
wards informed me that he was expected to take charge of the 
agricultural and horticultural work ubon the grounds, thus 
relegating my work to the class room and the duties of my rov- 
ing commission. 

PROFESSOR OILMAN'S SECRET EFFORTS. 

From that time until commencement I heard nothing further 
from the Regents. There has never been the slightest discension 
among the Professors. Between some of them and President 
Gilman a coolness existed, natural for men to feel who were 
aware of his secret efforts to remove them, but he has ever been 
considerered more an officer of the Eegents than of the Faculty. 
At his invitation I breakfasted with him on the morning of Com- 
mencement day, without an intimation of any contemplated 
changes in the Agricultural Department. The next afternoon, 
July 23d, he took part in a meeting of the Regents, secret of 
course, at which it was resolved to establish eight agricultural 
lectureships, to be filled by four experts within the State and 
four from the East. The sum of $5,000 was appropriated to 
defray the expenses. A Student's Loan Fund was also establish- 
ed. Mr. Stebbins then proposed to vacate or abolish the Chair of 
Agriculture, which, being strongly objected to by the new Re- 
gent, J. M. Hamilton, Master of the State Grange, was dropped 
for the time and another resolution substituted requesting me to 
resign. The following morning President Gilman left for the 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 37 

East. Eight days after, the Secretary informed me of this action 
in the following communication : 

Prof. E. S. Carr: — At an informal meeting of the following members of the 
Board of Regents, July 23, your resignation was requested by the Regents, 
whose names are given below : 

Booth, Hallidie, Mills, Winans, 

Dwinelle, Stebbins, Martin, Swipt, 

Moss, Haight, Gilman. 

Nay, Hamilton. 
And I was requested to communicate the same to you. 

ROBT. E. C. STEARNS, Secretary. 
Oakland, July 31, 1874. 

The Seretary also verbally informed me that if this request was 
complied with, my salary would be paid for the next three 
months. 

Where the line of formality ceases in a meeting in whicn so 
much important business is transacted, it is as difficult to under- 
stand as it is the "well meant courtesy" of attempting summarily 
to vacate a chair, and failing in that, to force a resignation. I 
requested an investigation, the preferment of charges, etc., 
through Regent Felton, and placed my reply in his hands, as 
follows : 

To the Honorable Regents of the University of California — Gentlemen : I 
have received, through your Secretary, the copy of a vote taken at an informal 
meeting of Regents Booth, Stebbins, Hallidie, Haight, Swift, Winans, Mills, 
Moss, Martin, Dwinelle and President Gilman, requesting my resignation and 
the negative vote of Regent Hamilton. 

So great have been the embarrassments of my position under the inability or 
disinclination of the Board to develope the Agricultural College according to 
public announcements and the official programme under which I accepted the 
appointment, that 1 should have resigned long ago, painful as it would have been 
to sever my unexceptionably pleasant relations witn the able and harmonious 
Faculty and students of the University, had I not felt a natural ambition to 
leave behind me some organized work as the results of my efforts here. 

I especially wished to resign during the last session of the Legislature, but the 
repeated assurances of the President to myself, and the pledges of the representa- 
tive members of the Board that these embarrassments should be removed, together 
with the consequent appropriations for the Agricultural Department induced me 
to forego my personal wish. 

Having consented to remain only upon such assurances and pledges, I cannot 
now become a party to an action, which, without explanation, would necessarily 
reflect upon either my professional or personal character. An unquestioned repu- 
tation is the only heritage I can hope to leave my children at the close of a life 
devoted to instruction. 

And, aside from all personal considerations, I cannot now comply with the re- 
quest of the Regents named without an apparent abandonment of the cause of 
industrial education. I therefore respectfully, but positively decline to offer my 
resignation. Very respectfully yours, 

EZRA S. CARR. 

Oakland, August 6, 1874. 



38 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

THE NEXT MEETING. 

A semi-officical notice of the next meeting appeared in the 
daily papers of August 12th. 

The Board of Kegents held a special meeting on the 11th 
instant, to settle the question of the Professorship of Agricul- 
ture. There were present : Governor Booth, Rev. Horatio Steb- 
bins, William C. Ralston, H. H. Haight, J. Mora Moss, J. W. 
Dwindle, J. West Martin, Sam Bell McKee, Louis Sachs, John 
B. Felton, D. 0. Mills, M. M. Estee, John S. Hager, A. S. Halli- 
die, Lawrence Archer, Judge Hamilton and John F. Swift. 

The Secretary notified Professor Carr of the views entertained 
by the Regents as expressed at an informal meeting held July 
23d, but had not received any reply. 

THE DEPOSING RESOLUTION. 

Mr. Stebbins then, in behalf of the Advisory Committee, con- 
sisting of Messrs. Haight, Stebbins, Moss, Martin and Dwindle, 
offered the following resolutions : 

First. — For the purpose of giving greater efficiency to the Faculty of Instruc- 
truction in the University in general and to the Agricultural Department in 
particular, which is impracticable without a change in the Professorship of Agri- 
culture; and in view of the incompetency and unfitness of the present incum- 
bent for the duties of that chair, the Secretary is hereby directed to notify Pro- 
fessor Ezra S. Carr that his services in the University will be dispensed with 
from this date, but that he will be allowed his salary for the present month. 

Second. — That a Special Committee of three be appointed by the Chair, to 
•onsider and recommend to this Board the name of a suitable person to fill the 
chair of Professor of Agriculture. 

After it had been decided to act upon the resolutions separ- 
ately, Mr. Haight moved the adoption of the first and a discus- 
sion followed, participated in by Messrs. Dwindle, Felton, Estee, 
Hamilton and others. 

Mr. Hamilton declared that no specific charges had been made 
against Professor Carr ; that there was only a general statement 
that he was incompetent, and that his removal would be looked 
upon by the farmers and mechanics of the State as a blow 
aimed at the mechanical and agricultural interests. 

Mr. Felton j oined Mr. Hamilton in opposing the resolution for 
the same reason, and insisted that if there were charges against 
him, they should be investigated. 

Mr. Dwindle said that he would not vote for the removal of 
Mr. Carr, because during the last session of the Legislature he 
had promised members that that gentleman should not be re- 
moved*. Mr. Estee said his action might seem inconsistent, but 
he believed it inadvisable to remove the Professor in the present 
state of public sentiment upon the subject. 

Governor Haight, Governor Booth, and other Regents, de- 



PROFESSOB CARR's REPLY. 39 

clared that Professor Carr's incompetency was well known to all 
the Regents, and was too notorious to need any investigation ; 
that his removal had been determined on long ago, and that it 
would be best for him and for the University that there should 
be no useless discussion or publicity. 

A FUTILE ATTEMPT TO PROCRASTINATE. 

The following substitute for the first resolution was offered by 
Mr. Hallidie : 

Resolved, That the Advisory Committee is hereby requested to examine into 
and report to this Board any irregularities, insufficiencies or incompetencies that 
may exist, or may have existed, in the administration of any department of in- 
struction in the University, and if in its opinion any changes should be made. 
The Committee is empowered to add to itself any additional members of the 
Board, to hold its sessions with open doors or otherwise, and to adopt such meas- 
ures to further the public interest as their judgment may dictate or suggest, and 
to report the facts to the Board. 

The substitute was defeated by a tie vote and the original 
resolution was then adopted by the following vote : Ayes — 
Regents Booth, Mills, Winans, Stebbins, Archer, Martin, McKee, 
Swift, Moss, Ralston and Haight. Noes — Regents Estee, Halli- 
die, Dwindle, Sachs, Felton and Hamilton. Excused — Regent 
Hagar. Absent — Regents Pacheco, Bolander, Carey, Bowie 
and Grilman. 

Regent Hamilton then offered a protest against the removal of 
Professor Oarr, embodying the objection he had urged in his 
speech, and requested that the same be placed on record. It 
was as follows : 

I protest against the summary removal of Prof. Carr at this time. 

First. — Because such removal will be in direct violation of pledges made by 
friends of the University to the House Committee on Education of the last Leg- 
islature. 

Second. — I believe such an act is in opposition to the wishes of a large class of 
the friends of the University, viz., the agriculturists and mechanics of Califor- 
nia, and will go far to confirm the belief that the vacating of the Chair of Pro- 
fessor of Agriculture at this time is more to gratify personal feeling than to sub- 
serve the public interest. 

Third. — Because such removal will have the effect of strengthening opposition 
to the present management and give color to the charge now so openly preferred. 
That the President and Regents are striving to build up a purely literary institu- 
tion at Berkley a.t the expense of the agricultural and mechanical interests, and 
are thus diverting the University from the original purpose for which it was 
formed, by either ignoring entirely or making those objects secondary which the 
organic act declared should be primary ones. 

Fourth. — Because the summary dismissal of any Professor of the University 
for alleged incompetency, without first granting the accused the privilege of a 
hearing, and an opportunity to defend himself from the charges made against 
him, is demoralizing in its tendency, and is not in accordance with the principles 
of right and equity which should ever prevail in the management of the institu- 
tion. J. M. HAMILTON 

The Regents refused to receive it. A respectful, yet firm and 
pointed protest was also presented from a Joint Committee of 



40 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

nine, representing the State Grange, the Mechanics' State Coun- 
cil and Mechanics' Deliberative Assembly. In the interval be- 
tween the two meetings many respectable organizations had 
passed condemnatory resolutions, and the newspapers, religious 
and secular, had with almost entire unanimity voiced the popu- 
lar sentiment with regard to the proposed action. 

REGENT STEBBINS. 

The falsehood contained in the resolution offered by Rev. 
Eegent Stebbins is only equaled by its malignity. That the 
Board should retreat behind the insinuation that it were " best 
for me that there should be no useless publicity," though I had 
asked for an investigation, was no surprise, for it was the line 
adopted in Professor Fisher's case. It is the common policy of 
cowardice to stab in the dark. Timely warning had been been 
sent me from the East by parties to whom they had applied for 
information, which they hoped might help to justify their action 
with the public. They had even requested such information to 
be telegraphed, so great was their need. 

GOVERNOR BOOTH. 

That Governor Booth should turn his back upon the men who 
elected him, and tho principles he had professed to favor, was 
consistent with his past history. 

During the canvas for Governor he spoke warmly for the Un- 
versity to the citizens of Oakland. That object attained, he 
opposed the necessary appropriations for buildings, but the 
measure was carried in spite of the " crack of the executive 
whip," as Senator Tompkins expressed it. (See Senate Proceed- 
ings in Sacramento Union, April 1st, 1872.) 

He was severe in his criticisms on the administration and ex- 
travagance of the Regents. He defeated the election of Regent 
Tompkins to the Presidency and secured that of his obsequious 
follower, Gilman, who he will doubtless drop as readily when- 
ever his interest requires it. When Governor Booth was 
inaugurated, Governor Haight urgently requested the attendance 
of the University cadets to give eclat to the occasion, and help 
to secure those very appropriations, but no hint was given as to 
the way in which the expenses of the trip were to be met. The 
Faculty voted the students leave of absence on condition that 
$500 could be raised to defray the expenses of the battalion. No 
money being obtained, at the last moment I gave President Du- 
rant my check for that amount. A few weeks later, on the visit 
of the Legislative Committee, they and the Regents were sumpt- 
uously entertained at Blaise's and Tubbs' Hotel, at the expense 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 41 

of the University. (See Mr. Moulder's testimony before the In- 
vestigating Committee, 1873-4.) That 

GOVERNOR HAIGHT. 

Was forced to resort to the desperate threat made to Regent 
Swift, that unless he (Swift) would vote against me, he (Haight) 
would resign, did not susprise me, for Governor Haight, through 
his appointments, is responsble for the present condition of 
things. The powers of the Regents have been more and more 
centralized from the beginning, every vacancy, with a single ex- 
ception, being filled with the personal friends or business 
associates of the Regents. Those cunning provisions of the 
Organic Act, which enabled him to dispense with confirmations, 
and by which " no member of the Board of Regents of the 
University shall be deemed a public officer by virtue of such 
membership, or required to take any oath of office ; but his em- 
ployment as such shall be held and deemed exclusively a private 
trust," (See Organic Act, Section 11,) could hardly have escaped 
his observation. 

The recent presentation by Governor Haight of " Our Uni- 
versity " at the Yale College Commencement shows plainly 
enough that the aim of the Regents has not been to execute the 
noble purposes of Congress and the State, but still further to 
enlarge and concentrate their own powers. The skillful manipu- 
lation of and changes in the Organic Act and laws relating to 
the University, such as making the President a voting member 
of the Board, conferring upon it the power of removing Profess- 
ors at pleasure, which changes were effected by Governor Booth's 
Code examiner, Regent Dwindle, are sufficient illustrations. 

The managing Regents, known as the Advisory Committee, 
are not for the first time on the defensive. They were deeply 
and equally implicated, and President Gilman with them, in 
whatever " informalities " or irregularities attended the construc- 
tion of the College of Letters. They are equally responsible 
for the sale of the agricultural farm and other landed property 
at Berkeley, and for the use of the funds in speculative enter- 
prises. 

REGENTS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 

That Mr. Dwindle felt himself committed to an offensive 
neutrality did not surprise me, nor will it the Legislative Com- 
mittees, who were acquainted with the damaging reasons which 
made such pledges necessary in his case. 

That honorable men in the Board, personally unacquainted 
with me, should lend themselves to an act of almost unparallel- 
ed injustice in the history of public institutions, is to be accounted 



42 PKOFESSOR CARE'S REPLY. 

for only on the theory that they are ignorant of the facts and 
acting upon false information. Of those members who urged an 
investigation into the true reasons for this action, and whose re- 
jected resolution furnishes sufficient evidence of their uprightness, 
it can only be said that they did what they could. The only 
member of that Board who ever held a College office, and whose 
honored name is known through the world of letters, has most 
earnestly resisted these arbitrary measures. They had, unfor- 
tunately, placed too much power in the hands of the President, 
a person without experience in Government, without knowledge, 
interest or sympathy in industrial education, and who had ob- 
tained a recognized position among the obstructionists. They 
would be the first to see the absurdity of asking a Board of Far- 
mers and Mechanics to control the affairs of a law school. Yet 
they have opposed the admission into their body of any repre- 
sentatives from the classes the foundation was primarily intended 
to benefit. There are plenty of men in those classes who are 
the peers of the Regents in intellectual ability. The Board of 
Regents, as at present constituted, is an anomaly in the history 
of democratic institutions. It is virtually a self- perpetuating 
close corporation, managing a property already worth more than 
a million dollars, commanding an important and constantly in- 
creasing political influence. Already the skillful dispensing of- 
patronage has made itself felt at Berkeley. What it may be- 
come in the future requires no illustration. 

THE FACULTY IN THE DARK. 

In no institution with which I have been connected or have 
any knowledge, is the position of the Faculty so depreciated, 
ignoble and insecure. No talents, however eminent, no zeal or 
ability however tried, can count as an element of success where 
there is a secret policy to be maintained which the teacher is ig- 
norant of. Every Professor wishes to keep his department 
abreast of the time, and should feel at liberty in the employ- 
ment of means and methods of which he is the best judge. The 
Faculty of our University have been working in the dark, es- 
pecially those engaged in scientific instruction. When Professor 
Rising was appointed to the Professorship of Mining and Metal- 
lurgy it was reasonable to suppose it meant instruction in those 
branches — the possible practical opening of the College of Mines. 
But when he arrived, Regent Stebbins had written to him that he 
was not expected to give instruction in mining or metallurgy, 
and, as my appointment as Professor of Chemistry had never 
been revoked, we were in doubt what position it was expected he 
would fill. We could only understand this : That there was 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 43 

one policy presented to the public and another quite different 
policy, never plainly expressed, which was directing the educa- 
tional features of the institution. 

The former President had no seat in the Board, and no re- 
sponsibility in determining its action. 

It is no singular that the Regents should wish to exchange 
my services for those of a stranger to the events herein narrated. 
I came to California to study its industries with a view to em- 
ploying the information thus gained in another field. 

My letters of introduction presented to Governor Haight, Mr. 
Stebbins and other prominent citizens secured every needed 
facility, and were from sources which warranted their confidence 
and justified my election to the Professorship from which they 
have removed me. My record up to that time was wbII known 
to them. 1 had been constantly employed in prominent institu- 
tions for nearly thirty years. A Professorship was open to my 
acceptance in an Eastern College when I was appointed here. 

POSITION DEFINED. 

In the University of California I have had the misfortune to 
be the only representative of the agricultural interests, though 
not their only friend. I saw the land sold which was so necessa- 
ry to our practical education ; then announcements so changed 
that the Agricultural College, as such, no longer existed. Then 
the accommodations designed for its use were taken for other 
purposes. Then a Loan Fund substituted for the self-respect- 
ing manual labor system required by law, and, finally, an 
attempt to vacate the Chair of Agriculture. I was powerless to 
prevent these evils. That I loyally and honorably desired it, 
and presented my views first of all to the Regents, is proven in 
the foregoing pages. The necessity for a " change in the Pro- 
fessorship," so strongly put by Regent Stebbins in his studiedly- 
insulting resolution, was not so much to give " greater efficiency 
to the department " as to secure its permanent inefficiency and 
the private ends of President Gilman and the Advisory Com- 
mittee. It is not unlikely, under the tremendous pressure of 
public opinion, that a spasmodic attempt will now be made to 
show zeal and efficiency in promoting the practical features so 
presistently neglected,. Those who were present on Commence- 
ment day will remember that when the President and Regent 
Stebbins announced the programme for the coming year, there 
was nothing promised in these directions. 

COLLEGE OF MECHANIC ARTS. 

You have asked for information, also, concerning the College 



44 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

of Mechanic Arts. As, to the inquiries of Congress concerning 
the agricultural department, the answer must be made, that six 
years after our organization we had neither experimental farm, 
or stock or team, or farming machinery or implements ; that we 
had not planted a fruit tree, so of the department of mechanic 
arts it must be said, we have no shops, no practical instruction 
or special teacher. Much valuable theoretical instruction is 
given by Prof. Le Conte to the students of all the so-called Col- 
leges, in common. The logic which has been employed by 
Gilman and the Regents would make not only every high school 
and academy in the State an agricultural and mechanical college, 
but those of law, medicine and divinity, for they all "touch upon" 
subjects related to these pursuits. But no amount of logic will 
convince -the farmers and mechanics of the State that a horse 
chestnut and a chestnut horse are of the same practical value, or 
that the Colleges of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, without 
farm or shops to-day, were the " first equipped with the necesa- 
ry apparatus/' 

CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 

A good deal of the work upon the Cornell University buildings 
was done by the mechanical students. President White says 
of this department in Cornell's University : " Professorships of 
Industrial Mechanics and Practical Mechanics were early estab- 
lished and filled. Valuable models were imported ; a large 
amount of machinery was acquired. Hon. Hiram Sibley erected 
a building expressly for this purpose, gave $10,000 to furnish it, 
and afterwards a donation of $30,000 for its equipment. There 
are now closely connected with the lecture room, in which the 
theoretical side of mechanic arts is presented, other rooms for 
the designing and modeling of machinery, and work-shops fitted 
with power and machinery for working in wood and metals, in 
which the practical side will be conducted. The machine shop 
is to be conducted wholly as a means of instruction, and each 
student will be required to devote at least two hours of the day 
to work in the shop, so that he will not only get theory and prac- 
tice combined, but he will also have opportunies to construct and 
use tools of the greatest precision. Each candidate for the de- 
gree of Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering will be given an 
opportunity to design and construct some machine or piece of 
apparatus, or conduct a series of experiments, approved by the 
departmen t, such as promise to be of public utility. A special 
course will be arranged with such young men as have a fair 
knowledge of the machinist's or pattern-maker's trade, who de- 
sire to fit themselves for foremen or leading positions in their 



PROFESSOR CARR's REPLY. 45 

business. Practice will be given in work of the highest class, 
with thorough instructions in draughting and mathematics. 
From such students, forty-five hours per week, aside from reci- 
tations, will be required, either in the machine shop or draught- 
ing room," etc. (See Cornell University register, pp. 73-74.) 

The history of our Mechanic Arts College is confined to the 
courses of general lectures in San Francisco, given each Winter 
by the Professors of the University, as a part of their intruc- 
tion. These certainly have had no special relation to the me- 
chanic arts. Usefnl as they have been in information imparted 
and by inspiring a kindly feeling towards the University, they in 
no respect lessen the necessity of carrying out in good faith the 
provisions of the law. The scientific lectures given in Boston 
year after year by no means supplied the want of a Technological 
School, which divided these with the Massachuesetts Agricultural 
College, the proceeds of the Congressional grant. When the 
President of that school, Mr. Kunkle, came to this coast, three 
years ago, and purchased a five stamp-mill from H. J. Booth & 
Co., of San Francisco, and shipped Colorado ores by the ton for 
his Boston students to experiment with, the firm generously pre- 
sented a similar mill, through me, to the University of California. 
It has never been set up, nor do I know what has bacome of it. 

WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE $30,000 ? 

At the opening of the Mechanics' Institute lectures in San 
Francisco last year, President Gilman announced that the sum 
of fifteen thousand dollars a year for two years had been guar- 
anteed by some of the wealthy gentlemen of San Francisco to 
carry on certain branches of technological instruction. 
Just what relation this had to the University I do not 
know ; there has been no public announcement that such in- 
struction is yet furnished, or that it is to be furnished the 
coming Winter. I believed at the time it was an adroit move 
to checkmate the establishment of a Mechanic Arts College at 
Berkeley. 

THE OBJECT OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 

The fact should never be lost sight of that the object of Agri- 
cultural Colleges is to fit men for the business of agriculture, to 
train men in the rural and domestic sciences, arts and economies 
— in other words, to put brains into these pursuits, and elevate 
them to the dignity of other callings. We have had as many 
translations of the words of the Congressional Act "in order to 
promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial 
classes in the pursuits of agricultural and the mechanic arts," 
as if they were written in the arrow-headed characters of ancient 



46 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 

Ninevah. Congress meant to endow schools that would bear 
the same relation to those pursuits that Schools of Law and 
Medicine do to those professions. As far as this is done the re- 
sults are all that could reasonably be expected. Where they are 
managed in the interests of other pursuits, as in our own case, 
they are not eminent successes. The question as to who is to 
blame can easily be settled by enquiring who has the responsi- 
bility ; for in a matter like this, ignorance is not a valid plea. 
Farmers and mechanics must take the management of institu- 
tions designed for their benefit, into their own hands if they 
would have them succeed. No other classes are or can be so deep- 
ly interested in their success. 

The average time since the opening of the thirty-nine Agri- 
cultural Colleges, enjoying the national benefaction, is less than 
five years. Twenty-four of them had, a year ago, an attendance 
of 2,604 students, with 321 instructors — an average of 109 and 
12.3, respectively ; while the 217 old institutions (from 30 to 
100 years old) which reported their collegiate and past graduate 
students, in 1872 had 20,866 and 3,018 instructors — an average 
of 95 and 13.8, respectively. They have called out State and 
individual donations to a very large amount. Thirteen of them 
have thus received $2,923,550. Eighteen, not including the 
richest, Cornell, possess property and funds to the amount of 
$8,272,382. Neither is it true that nineteen- twentieths of their 
graduates never take to agriculture for a living. 

Massachusetts is not an agricultural State, but she says of the 
fifty-seven graduates of her Agricultural College, "A large por- 
tion of them have engaged in agricultural and horticultural pur- 
suits." Michigan says of her sixty-seven graduates, "A large 
portion of them have devoted themselves to agricultural pur- 
suits." If Cornell University has but four Agricultural stu- 
dents, we are sorry for the State of New York, which ought to 
have 4,000. Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Iowa, are making 
educated farmers by the hundred in Agricultural Colleges, sepa- 
rated from the overpowering influence of literary and purely 
scientific education. The difference is in the omission of the 
practical, for the quality and quantity of theoretical instruction 
is nearly the same in both cases. And more than all, the differ- 
ence is in the spirit of the administrative or directing power of 
the Institutions. 

CONCLUSION. 

The President of the Board of Kegents, Gov. Booth, has 
said, "In the broad daylight of free inquiry and full infor- 
mation, the people are responsible for every public abuse.'" If 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 47 

my removal has stimulated enquiry, and furnished needed infor- 
mation, if what 1 have said will lead the people to guard with 
more zealous care the precious inheritance intrusted to them, a 
great benefit will have been secured at a trifling cost. 

The opportunities the Regents claim to have had to judge 
of my fitness and competency have never been improved, for not 
one who voted for my removal is an agriculturist, and not one, 
including Regent Gilman, was ever present at one of my lectures 
to the agricultural class. The same lectures, general and speci- 
al, before farmers' clubs and associations have been cordially 
approved, and their publication requested. My life-long interest 
and association with the working men of the country has given 
me a vital interest in all their organizations. In this lies the 
secret of my offence to the Univerisity and its present rulers. 

That our colleges have fostered a spirit of caste which has 
made them uncomfortable, to say the least, for students of in- 
dustry, will not be denied by those who witnessed the early efforts 
to graft the new education upon the old. 

They have been aristocratic rather than democratic in their 
tendencies. We have no other aristocracy than that of wealth, 
and within a few years we have seen how dangerous and how 
corrupting the power of concentrated wealth may become. The 
people must erect their own safeguards. Let our public institu- 
tions remain and become more and more popular in the highest 
sense if the word — exponents of the traditions, spirit and deter- 
mination of the people of California, rather than a handful of 
politicians and capitalists. Instead of separating our Agricul- 
tural and Mechanical schools from those of Letters and the 
Professions, let us have the latter developed around, not above, 
the Industrial in the order of their necessity to the public wel- 
fare. Let their interests be confided to representative, unselfish 
men, who have faith in the intrinsic dignity of all labor and in 
the elevation of the people. Respectfully submitted, 

EZRA S. OARR. 

Oakland, September 5, 1874. 



^PPEISTDIX. 



I have frequently alluded in the foregoing pages to the "State- 
ment " of the Eegents to a Joint Committee of the Legislature 
of 1873-74, appointed at their request, which they say was 
"Carefully considered by them, unanimously adopted and certi- 
fied to as correct in all its particulars." This document is dated 
March 4, 1874. It not only contradicts itself in important par- 
ticulars, but is at variance with other well attested facts, docu- 
ments and records. 

The Eegents tell us (page 37 of Statement) that they have 
either sold or contracted to sell the entire grant of 150,000 
acres at $5.00 per acre, in gold coin, net, 20 per cent, being paid 
down, the remaining 80 per cent, bearing interest at 10 per 
cent, per annum. This should give us a productive fund of $750,- 
000, or an income of $75,000 per annum. The law of Con- 
gress requires this to be invested in United States Stocks or 
other safe stocks. It is not so invested. 

The ifetal amount of principal, cash, received at date of State- 
ments, was $114,025.47, of this amount, $79,709.96 was in the 
hands of Regent Ralston, bearing interest at the rate of six per 
cent, per annum. $34,315.51 was expended for the purchase of 
the Brayton Estate, for which Regent Tompkins was agent; (see 
pages 33 and 34.) Applications on file and certificates of de- 
posit to the amount of $94,573, " bearing interest at 10 per 
cent." are in the hands of the Land Agent, the money in the 
Bank of California, but no account of interest allowed by said 
Bank appears in the exhibit of the Regents, (see page 35.) 
Four dollars credit per acre on 94,573 acres amounts to $378,- 
292 and should have been drawing interest, otherwise the income 
from the land fund is diminished at the rate of $37,829 per 
annum. 

A still more serious evil appears in the fact that the Regents 
have so framed their regulations, that the purchaser is not 
obliged to pay interest on the credit portion of his purchase 
money until his title is obtained. The time intervening be- 
tween the application and rendering of patent may be extended 
for years, while the land is occupied and cleared of timber. No 
bonds had been given guarding against such a contingency up to 
the 1st of July last ; while on page 36 of the Statements we 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 49 

find that 8,840 acres have been forfeited by applicants and re- 
turned to the Land Agent. We have seen from the Statements 
that $79,709.96 of the Agricultural Land Fund was drawing 
interest at six per cent, per annum ; $34,315.51, temporarly in- 
vested in property, subject to a mortgage of $50,000, bearing 
originally ten and later nine per cent, per annum interest, and 
$94,583 drawing no interest at all up to the 1st of July last, as 
appears from the books. " I submit this as conclusive evidence 
of the care, the ability, and the fidelity " with which the Re- 
gents say, " they have administered the responsible and onerous 
trust confided to them." 

Again, with reference to the Brayton property, or rather 
" four full blocks in the heart of the growing city of Oakland," 
we are told, " it has cost to date, including $11,386.25, paid as 
interest on the mortgage, the sum of $112,476.25 ; " (page 34 
of Statements.) On page 44 of the Financial Exhibit, the 
property is stated to have cost $113,592.45, (Brayton Estate,) 
and the "College of California property including the block and 
buildings thereon " $49,030.04, or $162,000 for the four full 
blocks. 

Blocks No. 2 and 3, purchased of the Brayton Estate, cost 
$94,315.51, according to the Statements on page 40, in this man- 
ner : They assumed a 50,000 mortgage for Mrs. Brayton, " and 
transferred to the vendors the outside property, valued at about 
$30,000, adjoining the University site at Berkeley, which had 
been obtained without any additional cash expenditure." But, 
on the $50,000 mortgage $11,386,25 interest was paid, also $2,- 
929.51 for some unexplained purpose, as will be seen by referring 
to page 34, where we find that $34,315.51 of the principal of the 
land fund was " temporarily invested " in this purchase, $20,- 
000 of this specific sum having been paid subsequently for an- 
other block of Brayton property " to complete the quadrangle." 
We find that the addition of $11,386.25 to that sum leaves $2,- 
929.51 unaccounted for, making the entire cost of the two blocks 
upon which the mortgage rested, as above stated. 

If the block and buildings formerly belonging to the College 
of California, are considered as a part of the " purchase " which 
has proved valuable to the State, " being worth many thousand 
dollars more than it has cost," the total cost of the four full 
blocks may be summed up as follows, according to the Regents' 
own showing: 



50 PROFESSOR CARR'"s REPLY. 

The College Block, or No. 1, cost $49,030.04 

Blocks 2 and 3, (Br ay ton property,) cost, by mortgage assumed ( $50,000.00 

Interest on the same •? 11,386.25 

Item unaccounted for ( 2,929.26 

$94,315.52 

Vacant Block, No. 4, cost $20,000.00 

Total cost of four full blocks $163,345.55 

Yet on page 34 of the Statements, the Kegents say : " Should 
it be deemed best to dispose of this property it will realize 
1150,000 at least, sufficient to pay off the mortgage of $50,000, 
to repay the Land Fund the $34,315.51 borrowed, and leave a 
surplus of $65,684.48, yielding in the shape of profit a far 
larger interest upon the amount of the land fund invested than 
could possibly have been derived from any ordinary safe invest- 
ment." From their own showing these four blocks cost $163,- 
345.55, and they will " realize," (page 34 of Statements,) $150,- 
000, making a net loss of $13,345.55. 

It were well for the Agricultural interests of the University 
if this were all the Eegents have attempted to conceal in count- 
ing the cost of that dear purchase. On page 46 of the State- 
ments, they count among the possessions of the University, the 
present domain, " 200 acres of land, worth, at a low valuation, 
$1,000 per acre." Directly Adjoniing, and situated on both sides 
of Strawberry Creek, the beautiful wooded stream which mean- 
ders through the University grounds, is the property exchanged 
with the Brayton Estate, " valued at about $30,000," described 
in the deeds as follows: "Lots 1 to 11 inclusive, in Block B; 
lot 49 in Block F, and lots 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32 
in Block D ; 81, 70-100 acres of land in Nos. 80 and 82, Kel- 
lenb^rger's map, (situated between the Deaf and Dumb Asylum 
and University,) 112 acres of undivided or mountain land," cov- 
ering unestimable water rights and resources. Two hundred 
thousand dollars is as low a valuation for this land as for that 
remaining in possession of the University. 

The Brayton property, therefore cost the University $170,- 
000 more than is shown in the Statements, it robbed the experi- 
mental farm of ground most essential to its uses, well sheltered 
and valuable for horticultural purposes, with water rights which 
no money can ever replace. 

The account then, stands as follows : 

Brayton property, (3 blocks) cost in Berkeley lands $200,000.00 

Mortgage on two blocks 50,000.00 

Cash paid from Land Fund 34,315.51 

Cash paid on College Block 49,345.55 

Total cost $333,345T55 

Value as estimated by Regents $150,000.00 

Loss to the Uniyersity $183,345.55 



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 51 

These lands were donated and in some of them the terms of 
the deeds are explicit, "for an Agricultural College." The lia- 
bilities of the College of California, paid by the Regents, did 
not equal the amount realized on the College Block at the recent 
sale. The Berkeley lands also were advancing in value, and 
since the removal of the University, are practically unestimable, 
even considered with reference to future speculative uses. 

If this is ths best showing the Regents can make of the man- 
agement of property lying directly under their eyes, what, in all 
probability, would be the exhibit of losses in the management 
of 150,000 acres of valuable timber and other lands of which 
the pu blic knows little or nothing ? The history of the sales of 
school and University Lands has been one of shameless fraud and 
peculation committed, not upon one, but many generations. 

Misstatements and misrepresentations abound in these and 
more recent Statements of the Regents upon other points. They 
authorized me to employ a gardener Sept. 18, 1872, yet, in re- 
ply to the inquiries made by the Grangers and Mechanics Aug. 
8, 1874, they state that " within the past year the Berkeley 
property has been surveyed and mapped, and the right places 
marked out for Agriculture, Horticulture, Botanic, Garden and 
Forestry." In their printed statements, dated March 3d, they 
say that " $500 was placed at my disposal to secure the aid of 
competent lecturers on special subjects," but on April 17th, the 
Secretary writes, asking me to name these lecturers and submit 
plans, "that the Board may understand just what you would 
like to see done when the outlays asked for are authorized ! " I 
might multiply these instances, demonstrating the financial 
" unfitness " of the managing Regents, to administer a trust of 
$750,000 from the Nation, and a still larger sum from the State ; 
and their moral " incompetency " to tell the truth, in the excep- 
tional position of witnesses not under oath. 

But I think enough has been said to guard the true friends of 
the University against the sophisms of educational charlatans 
and political demagogues, and from future betrayals by the land 
speculators and moneyed corporations who have hitherto man- 
aged it in their own rather than the interests of the people. 



THE 



University and its Managers 

BEFOKE THE PEOPLE AND THE, LAW. 



BY PROF. WM. SWINTON. 



PROP. SWIUTOFS TESTIMONY 

Before the Legislature of California, 



—GIVEN TO THE— 



oinf jVgfelafiw flommitt^ on ||muft[sttg W®** 



MARCH 11th. 1874. 



WM. SWINTON, Sworn. 

The Chairman. — Prof. Swinton, we propose to examine you first under the 
first resolution : (reads,) "What instruction has been given in Agriculture 
and the Mechanic Arts in the University, whether it has been defective or not ; 
and if defective, what is the cause, remedy, etc?" In what particulars do you 
disagree with the " Statements" embodied in this report? (Regents' of March 
3, 1874.) 

A. — I object to the use of the term "College of Agriculture," as it does not 
conform to our last official statement of the organization of the University. 
We have no such thing. 

Mr. Tinnin. — What did I understand was your objection to the report — your 
objection to calling it an Agricultural College ? 

A. — It does not conform to the official statement ; I do not think a special 
course in the College of Science is an Agricultural College. 

Mr. Friedenrich. — In what way does it lack or fall short? 

A. — A number of subjects stated in our catalogue are not taught. 

Q. — Can you suggest any remedy ? A.ny improvement? 

A. — As a measure of economy, I should say that the abolition of the office of 
President would be a desirable measure. I should be happy to respond in writ- 
ing, more fully. 

Q. — Can you name any College that does not have a President' ? 

A. — Yes sir. The University of Virginia. 

Q. — What were your relations with the President ? 

A. — They have always been those of civility. I think he is not as good a 
President as the University of California deserves. 

Q. — Can you give us any reasons for that ? 

A. — I will. I think he has put the Board of Regents in a sort of tacit attitude 
of antagonism to the wishes of the people of the State in regard to certain phased 
of practical education, 

Q. — In what way ? 



56 pkofessok swinton's testimony. 

A. — Rather by inference and implication than by direct statement, viz . giv- 
ing the impression that the people who are struggling passionately, though some- 
what crudely, after a great educational idea are mistaken in their wishes, that 
their idea has been tested elsewhere and failed ; query, has it failed? That is 
one point. Another point is, that I do not think there is that feeling of con- 
fidence, on the part of the students towards him, that is necessary to the success- 
ful working of the University for any considerable length of time. 

Q. — How long have you entertained these feelings ? 

A. — It is difficult to state the genesis of feeling. I never had a very high re- 
gard for his fitness for the position, founded on what I heard in the East. I did 
not entertain a very high regard for his abilities before he came here. My ob- 
servation did not increase my regard for his fitness. That feeling has been grow- 
ing ever since. 

Q. — In what way do you believe that the Board of Regents, either acting under 
the influence of President Gilman or not, failed to carry out the wishes of the 
people in the management or establishment of the Agricultural Department of the 
University. 

Mr. Friedenrich. — I would suggest, Mr. Chairman, that the witness present his 
statement written out. 

To the Chairman of the Joint Committee on the University : 

Sir : When, on the eleventh instant, I had the honor of ap- 
pearing before your honorable committee, in obedience to a sub- 
poena, a member (Mr. Amerman) made the following statement : 

" I suppose, so far as the committee is concerned, that they want to obtain any 
information that it is possible to obtain in relation to the condition and manage- 
ment of the University, and with which the Faculty are conversant. Without 
putting any specific questions, I suppose it would be perfectly in order for you to 
state anything that would throw light npon this subject." 

In accordance with this courteous invitation, I beg leave to 
present the subjoined considerations. At the outset, however, 
it is proper for me to promise, that it is not my design to enter 
into the large and complicated question of university organiza- 
tion (for the framework of that is already provided for in the 
Organic Act,) but merely, to offer certain general views regarding 
the University's "condition and management." 

And first, as to the present state of the University with rela- 
tion both to the purpose contemplated by the national land 
grant, which constitutes its main permanent endowment, and to 
the expressed desire of the people, whose benefactions, through 
legislative action, have been and still are necessary to the exis- 
tence of the institution. 

THE NATIONAL BENEFACTION. 

The purpose contemplated by the national land grant is ex- 
plicitly set forth in the language of the law of Congress, which 
declares that " the fund shall be applied to the endowment sup- 
port and maintenance of at least one college, where the leading 
object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical 
studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of 
learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." 



PROFESSOR SWINTON'S TESTIMONY. 57 

True, the law, by not excluding " other scientific and literary 
studies," presents an opportunity for the introduction of a gen- 
eral scientific course, but it at the same time concentrates the 
main force of its purpose on the industrial arts as the " leading 
object " of the National Colleges. 

This law dates back to 1862 ; and considering the period at 
which it was framed, it is a notable instance of advanced educa- 
tional views — for the noble and democratic theory of the people's 
university, which shall aim at the " betterment of man's estate," 
is a modern thought, originating not in the cloister but in the 
popular heart, and even yet unappreciated by the scholastic 
class, who, by the very fact of their position, are expounders of 
the old rather than creators of the new. 

Unmistakable, however, as is the scope of the law, it, unfor- 
tunately, by the generality of its terms, leaves an opening, small 
indeed, yet sufficiently wide to have prompted in several instances 
the attempt to pervert the essential aim of the Act by convert- 
ing the National Colleges into literary and " pure science " 
schools — that is to say : the non-exclusion of the general culture 
studies as a secondary object has, by the obstructive ingenuity 
of pedantry, been made the excuse for the exclusion of that 
which, with noticeable emphasis, is declared to be the primary 
object, to wit : the practical application of science to the wants 
of man. I say that this looseness in the law has, in several in- 
stances, been made the occasion for the kind of perversion 
spoken of (I waive, for the moment, the query whether such 
perversion has been attempted in the case of the University of 
California ;) and this abuse of a grand intent has alarmed the 
friends of popular practical education. Thus the able and ex- 
haustive Report on University Education, published by Congress 
in 1870, speaks of the " danger to the interests of agriculture 
and the mechanic arts, when confided to men unacquainted with 
and wholly unappreciative of them." " The friends of agricul- 
ture," it continues, " should make sure in effecting a consolida- 
tion with an institution of different character and aims (I waive, 
for the moment, the query whether the late College of Califor- 
nia is a case in point,) that the administration of the dual insti- 
tution be confided to men of large, comprehensive and impartial 
views." (Report on Education, by Dr. I. W. Hoyt, U. S. Com- 
missioner, p. 152.) 

But there is a yet more decisive and authoritive expression of 
opinion respecting the vital object of the national grant for in- 
dustrial schools, in Morrill's new Agricultural Bill, now pending 
before Congress. For it is declared that this has been 



58 PROFESSOR SWINTON'S TESTIMONY. 

rendered necessary in order to correct just the kind of abuse here 
spoken of, and to insure good faith. " If," says the Act, " it 
shall at any time be made to appear to the Secretary of the In- 
terior, by unequivocal evidence, that any State or Territory has 
not in good faith substantially complied with the provisions of 
the Act named in the first section of this Act, as to the use, ob- 
ject and purpose therein contemplated, he shall at once duly no- 
tify the Treasurer of the United States, who shall thereafter 
withhold the payment of any interest which may have accrued, 
or accrue, to any colleges in such State or Territory, until such 
time as the Secretary of the Interior shall be satisfied as to the 
compliance with the provisions of said Act, and shall so notify 
the Treasurer aforesaid." The University of California is deep- 
ly interested in the success of this bill, for it would, in case it 
could be shown that the institution has faithfully complied with 
the provisions of this Act, in making agriculture and the me- 
chanic arts the leading object, add over $30,000 per annum to 
its permanent endowment. (But I waive, for the moment, the 
query whether such compliance could be shown by the Board of 
Regents of the University of California.) 

In regard to the new bill, and the attitude which the scientific 
doctrinaries hold thereto, the eleventh annual report of the 
Massachusetts Agricultural College (1874) says : " Many of the 
leading educators [i. e., individuals in leading educational posi- 
tions,] who seem to have hitherto regarded these new institutions 
with silent contempt, have become alarmed at their rising impor- 
tance ; and Presidents of Universities, both old and new, ap- 
peared at the Capitol in person, or by letter, to remonstrate 
against the proposed action of Congress." (Here, too, I waive, 
for the moment, the consideration whether the President of the 
University of California was one of these " remonstrants.") 

THE PEOPLE'S WISH. 

With this much of consideration of the purpose contemplated 
by the national land grant for Agricultural and Mechanic Arts 
Colleges, I have now to make up the correlative question : what 
is the wish of the people of California touching the University, 
which they are taxing themselves to sustain ? 

On this head there is happily no room for doubt. The mem- 
orial now before this Legislature — a memorial behind which 
stands the imposing and voluminous figure of the two great 
producing classes, to wit : the agriculturists and artisans of this 
State — voices with no ambiguous utterance, the passionate and 
irrepressible desire for a University of the people, by the people, 
for the people. Says the memorial : 



PROFESSOR SWINTON'S TESTIMONY. 59 

" Believing that the first and highest employment of men is to feed, shelter 
and clothe the world, we ask that the graduates of our industrial colleges may 
be peers of scholars in mental culture, and peers of laborers in manual skill and 
physical development. Agriculture, in its various departments, should be so 
taught and practiced in our University as to send forth scientific farmers, whose 
labor and skill can utilize the soil and develope its greatest resources, while the 
mechanical department should graduate learned and skilled mechanics ; and it 
is the earnest desire of the agriculturists and meclianics of this State to make these 
great departments of industry the leading feature of our State University." 
(Memorial of California State Grange and Mechanics' Deliberative Assembly on 
the State University, p. 8.) 

These ringing declarations, which, to my mind, add a new- 
dignity to the industrial vocation, methinks they are the voice, 
as of many waters, of the People who come up to to the Capitol to 
demand that their great intent be not obstructed, but carried out 
— and I most respectfully leave with your committee to determine 
whether this majestical array is to be waived away by the 
shrunken figure of a college President disceursing scholastic 
platitudes about the supposititious "failure " of the people's 
glorious aspiration ! 

APOLOGETIC. 

If, in this presentation of the claims which the National G-ov - 
ernment, as well as the people of California, have on the Uni- 
versity, I have, as is probable, obtruded on your committee facts 
and views already familiar to you, it is because it has seemed to 
me that they are sometimes left out of sight, and because they 
are the necessary preliminary to the statement of the actual 
condition of the University in relation to its fundamental aim 
and purpose. This is the cardinal point in your inquiry, and I 
now proceed to answer it, premising, however, that matters as 
well of theory as of fact, will have to be taken into account. 

As regards the past, I have stated in my testimony that pro- 
bably the Board of Regents of the University has, in the mat- 
ter of industrial education, acted as well as could be expected of 
a body constituted as it is. According to their " lights " the 
members have doubtless aimed at the best interests of the Uni- 
versity. There have been, again, many obstacles to the carrying 
out of the original intent of the University, such as the recent- 
ness of its organization, its late change of location, etc. These 
should have a due weight ; and yet, I venture to declare, not an 
undue weight, for many of the State institutions, the recipients 
of the National Grant for Agricultural and Industrial Colleges, 
that are no older than the University of California, have already 
planted things like to last, in the establishment of practical 
schools, which, by their signal success, have demonstrated that 
the national grant was founded in the largest wisdom. 

This question, however, of what the Regents have done or 



60 PROFESSOR SWINTON's TESTIMONY. 

have left undone is a question apart, the answer to which may 
be left to their own consciences. Meanwhile, the main, vital, 
overshadowing question is, what is now the 

THEORY OF THE MANAGERS OF THE UNIVERSITY 

Regarding practical education, so far as that theory, design, pur- 
pose and intent, may be gathered from the published utterances 
thereanent ? 

On this subject the most salient and memorable exposition 
was made by President Gil man in his address before the Legis- 
lature. He said, after stating the scope of the University, that, 
" if inquiry should show that the friends of agricultural educa- 
tion, under the most favorable circumstances, were disappointed, 
or that their hopes had been abandoned, California should avail 
herself of this experience, and before incurring radical change 
or expense, ascertain the lessons of experience elsewhere." 

It will be noticed here that the failure of industrial institu- 
tions is made, not declaratively, but by hypothesis. Yet, that 
President Gilman wished to leave the impression that Agricul- 
tural and Mechanic Arts Colleges are failures, is sufficiently evi- 
denced by the fact that he proceeds to array all the supposed 
" disappointments " and " abandonments of hope " by " the 
friends (?) of agricultural education," citing the Agricultural 
Colleges of Massachusetts, New York, Iowa, etc., as instances. 
And, to reinforce this impression, a compilation of all the dis- 
mal jeremiades over the supposed "failure " of these schools has 
recently been made by the same hand, printed and laid on the 
members' desks. (Facts in relation to Agricultural Colleges.) 
I cannot refrain from saying that it is difficult to conceive any 
adequate motive for this wholesale perversion of the truth. The 
progress, success, and benefits of the Industrial Universities and 
Colleges founded by Congress to promote agriculture and the 
mechanic arts, considering the means employed, the recentness 
of their establishment, and the obstructions put in their way by 
the caste prejudice of the classicists and scientific schoolmen, 
have been far beyond that of any other higher institutions of 
learning in the country, and form, indeed the most inspiring edu- 
cational fact of the nineteenth century. I need only refer you 
to the last Report of the National Department of Agriculture 
for information touching the progress of the colleges enjoying 
the Congressional grant have. This document presents a most 
gratifying exhibit of the thirty-two State Agricultural and In- 
dustrial Colleges, which are attended by more than three thous- 
and students, a large portion of whom are pursuing agricultural 
and mechanical studies, and are under the care and instruction 



PROFESSOR SWINTON's TESTIMONY. 61 

of more than three hundred and fifty Professors. On this head 
I respectfully refer to an admirable resume of the success of 
these institutions, contained in the recently published report of 
the Committee on Education in the California Legislature. 
(See pp. 4 and 5.) 

WHY SHOULD PRACTICAL EDUCATION BE A FAILURE ? 

But, aside from the demonstrated fact of the success of these 
establishments, I cannot refrain from asking that a priori rea- 
son exists for supposing that they should be a failure, if under 
the conduct of men hospitable to the great cause ? In various 
departments of human activity it is recognized that pure science 
must be brought down into contact with pi ofessional pursuits, 
and it is conceded that only special schools can perform this 
work. That there is a point of contact between pure mathe- 
matics and the art of navigation, is made manifest by the fact 
that the Federal Government sustains a Naval Academy for the 
training of skilled officers in a special branch of the public ser- 
vice, and a Military Academy to fit men for another service, to 
wit, the profession of arms. Medicine, I believe, is not taught 
in the abstract, but in theaters of anatomy and in the clinics of 
the hospital ; and law schools seem to be successful just in pro- 
portion as they bring the exposition of pure principles in rela- 
tion with the methods of actual procedure. 

Now is it to be supposed that in the exploitation of the pro- 
ductive forces of nature there is no room for the practical appli- 
cations of science, taught in schools in which theory is brought 
in contact with practice and experiment ? Is the boasted Ba- 
conian method, which makes "fruits " (that is, practical results,) 
the test of sound philosophy, a mere delusion ? It is a fact 
which legislators would do well to take into account, that as in 
the case of about one half the whole number of the globe's in- 
habitants the chief occupation is the tilling of the soil, and fur- 
ther, that as in all civilized countries another large part of the 
population is, in the diversified forms of mechanical industry, 
engaged in the fabrication of articles useful to man, agriculture 
and the mechanic arts necessarily form the real basis of a na- 
tion's wealth, prosperity and happiness. If, between science and 
these divine creative functions of humanity there is no connect- 
ing link, and lawyers, doctors and priests alone are privileged to 
draw from the upper reservoirs, then, indeed, may thoughtful 
men well begin to inquire if science is not out of joint. 

WHAT IS THE FACT ? 

But on this score speculation is superseded by fact. The Na- 



62 PROFESSOR SWINTON's TESTIMONY. 

tional Government, acting on the faith of a great and beneficent 
idea, sought in the Agricultural College bill to elevate the in- 
dustrial pursuits to the rank and dignity of the so-called learned 
professions. The conviction had long prevailed that our higher 
institutions of learning did not confer upon these pursuits equal 
advantages with the old " professions," and the idea of training 
young men in the direction of these pursuits, of putting brains 
into these industries, gained ground and was embodied in the 
Act of 1862. And every body, but President Gilman, believes 
that the experiment, wherever fairly and honestly tried, has been 
a most gratifying success. 

MISPLACED IRONY. 

In this view, I cannot but think it lamentable that cultured 
gentlemen of the Board of Regents should have come before 
your honorable committee (as the testimony shows they have 
done) to cast ridicule on the popular desire that the applications 
of science to the great practical interests of life shall receive in 
the University that consideration which the law demands. The 
reasonable wish of the people, that some definite efforts shall be 
made in the direction of agriculture and the mechanic arts is 
met by the flippant query : " Do you wish us to teach your sons 
to plow and harrow, to peg shoes, or set up steam engines ? " 
Surely, in view of the weigty interest at stake, there was never 
made a more melancholy use of the redutio ad absurdum. 
And it is the more melancholy, from ths fact that the trium- 
phant iteration of this argument shows, that in place of being a 
mere piece of bandinage, it is a significant revelation of the ac- 
tual attitude of these gentlemen towards the weighty modern 
problem of the renovation of education into conformity with 
the broad facts of American politics and sociology. What a 
proof of the survival of that scholastic feudalism which regarded 
the learned professions as something in which inhere dignities 
and proscriptive rights, that the tiller of the soil and the " base 
mechanical " should be frowned on for claiming ! 

REVELATIONS. 

These revelations of the attitude of President Gilman towards 
the claims of industrial education, cast a vivid retrospective 
light on a series of changes which, soon after this accession, 
were made in the organization of the University — changes made, 
too, without the advice or consent of the Faculty, and which, I 
feel free to say, a majority of the members regard as most im- 
politic, if not illegal. The nature of these changes I now pro- 
ceed to indicate. 



PROFESSOR SWINTON'S TESTIMONY. 63 

It is well known that the Organic Act provided, in the organ- 
ization of the University, for the establishment of certain col- 
leges, to wit : a State College of Agriculture, a State College of 
Mechanic Arts, a State College of Mines, a State College of 
Civil Engineering, a State College of Letters, etc. The same 
Act required that the College of Agriculture should be first es- 
tablished, the College of Letters being already in existence, as 
an heirloom of the old College of California. 

Upon this basis the University was organized, and went into 
operation September, 1869. The first Register (1870) explicitly 
enumerates these Colleges as the constituent members of the 
University, and states that " each College confers a proper de- 
gree at the end of the course." It is true that this organiza- 
tion was in part an ideal one, seeing that de facto neither the 
College of Mechanic Arts, nor that of Mines, nor that of Civil 
Engineering, was in existence ; but the plan was at least in ac- 
cordance with law — a curriculum was drawn out for each Col- 
lege, and only the filling of certain chairs was requisite in order 
that they might pass from the realm of the ideal into that of 
the real. 

The Register of 1872-3 — the first after the accession of Presi- 
dent Gilman — was to the Faculty the first revelation of a com- 
plete transformation in the organization of the University. 
While the College of Letters remained, the four other Colleges 
had, to all appearance, become disincorporate, one common cur- 
riculum of science being substituted therefor, and only certain 
special " scientific studies " remaining as ghostly reminences of 
the College of Agriculture, College of Mechanic Arts, College, 
of Mining, etc. The last official exhibit of the organ- 
ization of the University in the proof-sheets of the forthcoming 
Register for 1874, shows the University to consist of (1) a 
"Faculty of Science," (2) a "Faculty of Letters" — Agricul- 
ture, the Mechanics Arts, Mining, etc., still flitting vaguely as 
" special courses " in the " Department of Science." 

It is true that the change thus affected is one rather of nom- 
clature than of fact, and it would be of uo special import were 
there collateral assurance that the intent of the managers of the 
University looked to a faithful carrying out of the law ; but, 
taken in connection with the recent persistent championing of 
the theory that the University should be a literary and " pure 
science " school of the Connecticut type, and with the statements 
that the experiment of practical education is a dismal failure, 
the change of name gathers a most pregnant significance. 

One of the most unfortunate results entailed by this merging 



64 PROFESSOR SWINTON'S TESTIMONY. 

of the individuality of the " Colleges " composing the Univer- 
sity, is that it takes away the reasonable ground of demand for 
professors and lecturers to carry on the full carricula of said 
colleges. So long as the cadre, or framework of these several 
Colleges remained, the Kegents could point to vacant chairs, and 
with justice ask the people for means to fill these chairs ; but as 
it now is, one professor would seem to be fully adequate to the 
instructional demands of any mere " special course " in the De- 
partment of Science. 

It may now be in place to state briefly 

WHAT IS ACTUALLY DOING IN AGRICULTURE 

In the University. And on this head, it is proper to mention 
that the latest Kegister is scarcely a trustworthy guide, for the 
imposing display therein made is rather an ideal to be worked 
up to, than an accomplished or even a possible fact. The work 
actually done in the " specialty " of agriculture consists exclus- 
ively of didactic exposition in the class-room, to wit : five lec- 
tures per week on the subjects of agricultural chemistry, agri- 
cultural botany, etc.; and as these subjects are in the hands of 
an able and experienced professor, the instruction cannot be 
other than valuable ; but as an " Agricultural College," this 
can hardly be deemed a shining success. 

In contrast with this meager performance, and as an exem- 
plar of what should be done in California, the mode in which 
other institutions, founded on the national grant for the estab- 
lishment of agricultural and industrial colleges, have carried 
out the "leading object" of the Act, is most instructive. In 
the recent official printed " Statements " of the Kegents to your 
committee, they say that they " beg those who are interested in 
the problem (of agricultural and industrial education) to exam- 
ine the catalogues, registers and reports of other State Colleges, 
and not rest their opinions upon vague end inaccurate rumors, 
or hostile criticisms." This suggestion is most appropriate ; for 
such examination, while bringing some mortification by the con- 
trast of the little we have done with the marvelous practical 
success of these institutions, will afford both a spur to our efforts 
and a standard for our aims. 

ELSEWHERE. 

For this purpose an examination of the registers of the Ag- 
ricultural College of Massachusetts (at Amherst,) and of New 
York (Cornell,) will suffice. 

In the Massachusetts Agricultural College the following 
Faculty appears in the specialties of agriculture : 



PROFESSOR SWINTON'S TESTIMONY. 65 

Professor Clark, Professor of Agricultural Botany and Hor- 
ticulture. 

Professor Stockbridge, Professor of Agriculture. 

Professor Goessmann, Professor of Agricultural Chemistry. 

Professor Cressy, Professor of Veterinary Science. 

Professor Packard, Lecturer on Useful and Injurious Insects. 

Professor Dickenson, Lecturer on Rural Law. 

S. T. Maynard, Gardener and Assistant Professor of Horticul- 
ture. 

J. C. Dillon, Farm Superintendent. 

Says the last register of this institution : " Every science is 
taught with reference to its application to agriculture and the 
wants of the farmer. The instruction in agriculture and horti- 
culture includes every branch of forming and gardening which 
is practiced in Massachusetts, and is both theoretical and prac- 
tical. Each topic is discussed thoroughly in the lecture room, 
and again in the plant house or field, where every student is 
obliged to labor six hours per week." The number of students 
last year was one hundred and thirty-nine. In regard to the 
success of the institution the report continues : " The institu- 
tion has been blessed with its usual prosperity, and has accom- 
plished much good. The farm and stock have steadily improved, 
and some agricultural experiments have been carried on with in- 
teresting and important results. There are hundreds of influen- 
tial men who, like the lamented Agassiz, were for years after its 
incorporation entirely skeptical in regard to the possible utility 
of such an institution, but who are now ready to unite in his 
magnanimous confession, that he had been mistaken and was 
glad to be convinced of the fact, and that the college was a com- 
plete success, and worthy a place among the scientific institutions 
of the world." 

Cornell University, which was established with the same gen- 
eral aims as the University of California, affords a still more 
interesting instance of the position which agriculture holds in 
one institution which shared the national land grant for agricul- 
tural colleges. Cornell University consists of a congeries of 
colleges, just as did our own University until the recent remod- 
eling. One of these colleges is a College of Agriculture. It 
has a Faculty consisting of eight professors and ten lecturers, 
and these professors and lecturers are engaged purely in special 
instruction in agriculture. The President of Cornell might 
have put down the thirty or forty other professors who are en- 
gaged in the various dapartments of university work, as swelling 
this list ; but to him evidently had not occurred that ingenious 



66 PROFESSOR SWINTON's TESTIMONY. 

theory, the invention of the President of the California Univer- 
sity, which makes the teachers of all branches of learning 
Professors of Agriculture — a theory, by virtue of which the 
Eegents, in their recent " Statements," are able to claim that 
seventeen out of eighteen professors and instructors "now teach- 
ing at the University/' are teachers of agriculture ! 

As your committee have asked for special information on this 
subject, 1 beg leave to state, that the lectures and exercises in 
the agricultural college of Cornell University, comprise the fol- 
lowing subjects ; 

1. The Chemistry of Agriculture, including the constituents and analytical 
composition of soils and of cultivated plants, the constituents and chemical 
agencies of the atmosphere and of water, and the composition of manures. 

2. The Geology of Agriculture, including the formation or soils, their chem- 
ical, physical, and economic character, their suitability for different kinds of 
crops, and the principal geological features of various portions of the United 
States as affecting the soil and productions. 

3. The Physics of Agriculture, including meteorology, or the laws of climate, 
and light and heat as influencing plant life. 

4. The Mechanics of Agriculture, and their application to the various descrip- 
tions of implements and labor required on the farm. 

5. The Botany of Agriculture, including structural botany, vegetable physi- 
ology, vegetable pathology, and a knowledge of crops cultivated for food and for 
technical purposes. 

6. The Zoology of Agriculture, including the habits, diseases, and treatment 
of live stock, the anatomy of the horse, the cow, the sheep, and other farm ani- 
mals, and all branches of veterinary surgery and medicine, as well as a special 
consideration of insects injurious to vegetation. 

7. The Economics of Agriculture, including the sequence of agricultural 
operations, the economical divisions of labor, the rotation of crops, the imrpove- 
ment of the soil by manuring, draining, and liming, farm engineering and con- 
struction, general agricultural policy, and the management of landed property. 

A CONTRAST. 

I venture to believe that your committee is now in position 
to realize not only how far the University of California is be- 
hind the other " National Colleges " in respect of this great 
phase of practical education, but also to how considerable a de- 
gree the institution has, during the incumbency of President 
Gilman, lapsed from the promise of two years ago. 

Two years ago the University had an Agricultural College, 
so named and announced in the official programmes of the in- 
stitutions ; now there is no Agricultural College, not even the 
theory of one : but in its room "a special course/' not essential 
to any degree conferred by the University. 

Then the agricultural graduate received for his four years 
study a diploma, equivalent in value to that of the College of 
Letters, and bearing the signatures of all the Professors, whose 
instruction he had enjoyed; wow the agricultural graduate re- 
ceives an inferior style of diploma, signed by to or three Pro- 



PROFESSOR SWINTON'S TESTIMONY. 67 

fessors while, with puzzling inconsistency, it is claimed that 
nineteeu twentieths of the University instruction is enjoyed by 
the students of agriculture ! 

Then students were directed towards the Agricultural College 
as intended to give special training in agriculture, as the law 
provides ; now the whole scheme of industrial education, as fos- 
tered by the National Government in past and prospective action, 
and as understood and successfully carried out in the several 
States almost without exception, is held up to the people of 
California, and to the youth who should be directed and encour- 
aged into industrial callings, as an ignominious failure or a 
Utopian dream. 

Then one of the buildings was designed, named ,and dedicated 
the Agricultural College ; now the same building is in the Uni- 
versity register designated the " South College," or the lt College 
of Science." 

Then a noble suite of rooms on the main floor of the Agri- 
cultural College building was, by mutual agreement among the 
members of the Faculty, and without objection from the Re- 
gents, assigned to the Professor of Agriculture for the special 
uses of his department ; noiv, by an act of the President, or the 
Advisory Committee, or both, this deparment is grounded in the 
north end of the basement of said building, where want of sun- 
shine prevents the exhibition of important operations, and 
where collections are exposed to mold and dampness. (President 
G-ilman has stated that this was done by action of the Faculty. 
I have never seen a single member of that body who ever heard 
of the proposition.) 

Then the University was in a position to avail itself of the 
further endowment of Congress, as provided in Morrill's supple- 
mentary bill, which would add at least thirty thousand dollars 
per annum to its income ; now it is not legitimately within the pro- 
visions of the new endowment (since the institution has no longer 
an Agricultural College, but only a " special course ") ; and if 
the present head of the University should bear to the Secretary 
of the Interior his ample accumulation of the " failures " of the 
National Schools, and also his metamorphosis of the State Ag- 
ricultural College into a " special course " in a " subdivision " of 
the " Department of Science," as evidence of honest compliance 
with the law of 1862, it might be a matter of pleasant specula- 
tion whether the Secretary of the Interior would be able to say, 
" Well done, good and faithful servant." 

Then the number of agricultural students was increasing ; 
now it is diminishing. And, indeed, this is to be expected, for 



68 PROFESSOR SWINTON's TESTIMONY. 

why should students seek instruction where there is neither land 
in cultivation, nor stock, nor any other material for illustrating 
practical agriculture : where they graduate from a " course " 
instead of a college, and receive a diploma which excites their 
anger and contempt, and which lacks the signatures of revered 
and beloved teachers, while the prestige of honors and dignities 
is reserved for the aspirants for " intellectual " callings. 

The length into which I have been necessarily drawn by the 
exposition of the shortcomings in the Agricultural College, pre- 
cludes any cosiderable discussion as to the College of Mines, the 
College of Mechanic Arts, etc. And, indeed, I am saved the 
need of any discussion of the subject by the fact that these col- 
leges do not even exist. 

THE REGENTS. 

I shall now (at your invitation), present a few considerations 
regarding the Board of Regent, and its relations to the r people 
and the Faculty. These relations, in my view, are neither 
sound nor healthful. A Board of Eegents of twenty-two mem- 
bers, which is in a large degree self-perpetuating, and which is 
required to render an account of its stewardship but once in two 
years, local in its character, interests, and associations, and made 
up almost exclusively of lawyers and other professional men, is, 
almost of necessity, disqualified from an unprejudiced handling 
of the question of popular education in its broadest aspects. 
Such a guild becomes, in spite of itself, a solidarity of resist- 
ance to the popular demand, which, however crude, always tends 
towards reason and justice. I believe this Board has done as 
well as would any other Board so chosen and constituted. Many 
of its members I personally respect and honor, while I honestly 
differ from the educational views to which, as a body, they are 
no doubt honestly committed. And, indeed, does not the history 
of nearly every college in the country show that these govern- 
ing Boards, growing more and more arbitrary and conservative, 
have to be swept away, and replaced by others more in harmony 
with modern progress ? 

What is the remedy ? One remedy that is proposed is the 
reorganization of the Board of Regents, so as, while leaving the 
present six ex officio members, to substitute for the other sixteen 
Regents, eight members, two from each Congressional District, 
the term of office being four years. This plan, which would 
secure representation for the different sections and interests of 
the State, finds favor with the Legislative Committee on Edu- 
cation, who, in their recent able report, thus express themselves : 



PROFESSOR SWINTON'S TESTIMONY. 69 

" We are of the decided opinion that no State educational institution, such as 
the Univetsity of Califoi-nia is designed to be, can be as prosperous and useful 
under the control of local men and interests, as when under the combined con- 
trol of men representing the varied callings, interests and sections of the entire 
State. The proposition, it seems to us, answers itself, and does not admit of 
discussion. We believe that such a change would greatly advance the best 
interests of the University." 

Whether the eight members should be elected by the people 
or hold under executive appointment, is a matter of detail ; in 
which ever way created, such a Board could not but be in sym- 
pathetic relations with the people of the State. I add, that 
this method prevails in many of the Western States. 

THEIR RELATIONS WITH THE FACULTY. 

As regards the relations between the Regents and the Faculty, 
I am aware that I am treading on delicate ground ; but I have 
seen faithful and honorable men, and that within a few days, 
placed in a position far more delicate, where a full and free ut- 
terance of their own convictions was morally impossible, without 
personal risks that men with families dependent upon them do 
not care to run, and where the general interests of the institu- 
tion which they have learned to love with an almost parental 
sentiment, seemed to require their silence. Nevertheless, I think 
that truth and honor demand an outspoken expression of opinion 
on my part, for I am not prepared to except that new definition 
of treason which makes it consist in doubting for a moment the 
infallibility of the Board of Regents as to the whole theory and 
practice of University education. 

I feel bold to say that the University of California cannot 
rest on a sound foundation until there is a rational readjustment 
of power between the Regents and the Faculty. The relations 
of the Faculty to the Regents have become more and more that 
of " employes " to an employer, while the relations of the Re- 
gents to the people seem to be less and less those of employed 
and employer. And between Faculty and Board there is noth- 
ing like correlation of rights. The greatest discovery of modern 
political science is the introduction of checks and balances, as 
guards against the absolutism of power lodged in the hands of 
any single body. But, with no power in the hands of the Fac - 
ulty, and all power in the hands of the Regents, there has en- 
sued the necessary consequence — timidity on the one hand, and 
despotism on the other. In this state of affairs, a President, 
however willing to voice the Faculty, would, from the very con- 
stiution of human nature, be sure in the long run to go where 
power lay. I believe President Gilman has been acute enough 
to see this, and to act accordingly. Now, if in this state of 
affairs we suppose a President to have some special educational 



70 



PROFESSOR SWINTON S TESTIMONY. 



"crank," bias, or prejudice (say opposition to industrial educa- 
tion), lie might, being wholly independent of the Faculty, by 
assiduous court paid to the Regents, succeed in bringing them 
over to his " policy," and thus in placing the University in an 
utterly false position. 

LOGIC RUN MAD. 

It is, in my opinion, precisely through this train of circum- 
stances that the Hoard of Regents have, by President Oilman, 
been placed in the present lamentable position of antagonisn to 
the popular educational demands. It is only unfortunate that 
honorable and high-minded men should consider it a matter of 
pride to maintain this attitude, and, at the slightest suggestion 
of criticism, form a circumvallation of defence around the privi- 
leges of their guild ; for the odd contradictions of fact and logic 
into which they have thus been precipitated, are hardly less 
amusing than pitiable. 

The whole energies of the Board and the President are direct- 
ed to prove : 



That Agricultural Col- 
leges ARE FAILURES. 



That there is no demand 
for agricultural education 
— i. e. that the university 
has no agricultural students 

That the only reason why 
agriculture is not taught 
practically is want of means. 

That the Agricultural 
Professor is inefficient. 



That the management of 
the University demands elev- 
en eminent lawyers to secure 
its success. 



That the University has 
an Agricultural College 
now, and that the regents 
are devoting nineteen twen- 
TIETHS of the University in- 
come to its developement. 

That of the eighteen pro- 
fessors AND INSTRUCTORS, ALL 

but one are engaged in teach- 
ing agriculture. 

That the legislation ask- 
ed FOR BY THE MEMORIALISTS, 

to secure such means, ought 
not to be granted. 

That his urgency in behalf 
of agricultural education is 
disloyalty to his employers, 
and requires that he be made 
an example of to evil doers. 

That these lawyers are 
unacquainted with the stat- 
utes respecting the univer- 
SITY. 



PROFESSOR SWINTON's TESTIMONY. 71 

DESIRABLE POINTS. 

I have said that the remedy for the kind of evils here spoken 
of is to be found in the rational readjustment of power between 
the Regents and the Faculty. In any such plan, there are two 
desiderata that should certainly be secured : 

1. Legislative action that shall make the summary removl of 
a Professor impossible, by providing that such removal shall be 
only for cause, and after fair trial. The j ustice of this measure 
is obvious, for what man of superior talent will dedicate his life 
to University instruction without other guarantee than the 
pleasure of the Board of Regents ? It is not an agreeable thing 
for a quiet scholar to lie down to rest a University Professor 
and to find in the morning that his chair has been vacated with- 
out notice or reason alleged. Nor is this an imaginary case : 
it happened three years ago in the instance of a Professor in 
the University of California, and sent a thrill of horror and 
shame throughout the world of letters. That such an outrage 
was possible in a civilized country, in the nineteenth century, is 
reason enough for demanding that law shall regulate where 
honor is silent. 

2. Legislative action that shall place in the hands of the 
Faculty the power of annually choosing from their own number 
one who, in addition to his professional duties, shall act as 
executive officer or President of the University. This is the 
plan devised by the wisdom of Jefferson of the University of 
Virginia (in which institution it has been in successful operation 
for over three quarters of a century), and which has been adopted 
by various modern Universities such as that of Melbourne. (For 
over a year after the organization of the University, one of the 
hardest worked professors, John Le Conte, was "acting president ;" 
and this was precisely the period of the greatest harmony and 
success of the institution.) The advantage of this method, on 
the score of economy, is obvious ; but, to my mind, it has another 
advantage still more important. As I said in my testimony 
before you, " Such an officer, being annually elected by the Fac- 
ulty, and responsible to that body, is in a position analogous to 
an English Prime Minister, since he may be passed on with 
regard to confidence or want of confidence." It is, in effect, a 
self adjusting arrangement, whereby, in the event of a President' 
ceasing to represent the best interests of the University, he would 
be removable before his influence could seriously damage the 
institution. It had been happy indeed, for the Universily of 
California, had there been such a safeguard against the mischief 
of an executive officer, who, while a person of respectable at- 



72 PROFESSOR SWINTON's TESTIMONY. 

tainments is, both by training and temperament, simply incapa- 
ble of grasping either the grandest phase of modern education 
or the practical wants of the people of California. 

PERSONAL. 

It has given me pleasure to appear before your commit- 
tee, and I have, at considerable personal sacrifice, deferred my 
journey to New York, for the purpose of doing so, because I am 
deeply interested in the welfare of the noble institution with 
which it was my happiness to be connected from the time of its 
inception until the 3d instant. During five years I devoted 
myself to its service with passionate ardor, and now that my re- 
lations to it are finally severed, my constant prayer is and ever 
shall be, " Glod bless the University of California." 

These declarations which, if unjustified by the occasian, might 
savor of self sufficiency, I make now with honest boldness, for 
the reason that attempts have been made to obscure, if not to 
obstruct investigation, by raising false issues aud side issues, in 
substituting questions of mere personality for the momentous 
concernments of the University. I think it my right and duty 
to make reference to two or three illustrations of this, in con- 
nection with my own testimony. 

Thus it has been sought to make it appear : 

1. That my views on certain matters, were influenced by as- 
pirations for the presidency of the University. This impression 
was conveyed rather by implication than by direct statement, 
and is scai-cely worthy of serious denial here, for it is notorious 
that I have ever proclaimed myself not only unambitious of the 
position, but wholly unfitted for it,. both by taste and tempera- 
ment. 

2. That my views should lose their force from my not being a 
so-called "University-bred" man. If "University breeding" 
afforded a reasonable guaranty for infallibility of judgment, the 
objection would be weighty, indeed ; though if it does afford 
such guaranty, I have certainly been unfortunate in many of 
the products of this miraculous breeding that I have had the honor 
to encounter. Such mental discipline as may be derived from 
four or five years attendance on college courses, in several insti- 
tutions, it was my happiness to gain, by my own effort, amid 
the bitter experiences of that " chill penury " which, contrary 
to the poet's phrase, has not always been able to " repress the 
noble rage." When, a very few years after the period at which 
the need of bread-winning compelled me to quit my college 
without a parchment voucher, that same honored institution 
sent me a master's degree, it was with the statement that it was 



PROFESSOR SWINTON'S TESTIMONY. 73 

merited by literary performances which " University breeding " 
does not always secure. And, as regards the whole matter of 
the absurdly ex post facto question of my intellectual fitness 
for a Professor, 1 shall simply say that the biographic details of 
my education, such as it was, and of my literary contributions, 
such as they are, are of record in all the cyclopcedias and histo- 
ries of American literature, published both at home and abroad 
— a fact which it has not been my good fortune to discover in 
the case either of my interlocutor, or of the gentlemen who, I 
believe, suggested the characteristic question (President Oil- 
man). 

3. That I have been, while in the University, a maker of 
text books. What relevancy this can possibly bear to the ques- 
tion of my capacity as a witness on the condition and manage- 
ment of the University, it is not easy to discover. That I ever 
neglected the duties of my chair to occupy myself with literary 
labors, I think will hardly be charged by any one cognizant of 
the facts of the case. And if, in connection with my University 
work, I have contributed somewhat to educational literature — a 
fact which, on the occasion of my examination before you, a 
Regent sought by inference to put in the category of a " high 
crime and misdemeanor " — I can but say that I have never be- 
fore heard this considered as other than matter of reasonable 
pride. I had imagned that it was by just such services that the 
chairs in Universities are rendered of good repute in the land. 
And, indeed, I shall have to confess that not only have I, myself, 
written, but that I have aided and abetted other of my colleagues 
in writing and publishing works that have found national and in- 
ternational approval ; but it may be fairly supposed they will 
now take warning by the censure that has been passed on me, 
and not make any more books. The temptation to indulge in 
irony on this subject, while great, must, however, be put aside 
by me, and I shall content myself with the honest avowal that 
it was bound up with my deepest convictions of duty as a Pro- 
fessor to do my part tor school literature. I judged that as the 
incumbent of a chair in a University avowedly the head of the 
public educational system of the State, a praiseworthy piece of 
work would be to prepare in my own department a series of 
books which might facilitate the passage from the school to the 
University, and thus bridge over a gulf which I have always 
regarded as unhappily too wide. 

But enough of tliese poor matters of personality, which would 
never have been referred to by me had they not been provoked. 
My career in the University has ended. The severance of my 



74 PROFESSOR SWINTON's TESTIMONY. 

connection with the institution was made voluntarily (although 
not without deep regret on my part), being necessitated by busi- 
ness considerations, the detailed statement of which would not 
be pertinent to this investigation. What my relations were, 
both with the Faculty and student, at the time of my resigna- 
tion, is sufficiently evidenced by the underwritten resolutions 
adopted by these bodies, respectively : 

i 

At a meeting of the Faculty of the University of California, held on Friday, 
March sixth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, the following resolution was 
offered by President Welcker, which was unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That it is with deep regret that we learn that our colleague, Pro- 
fessor William Swinton, has, by his resignation of the chair, which he has hitherto 
filled with such distinguished ability and success in this institution, severed his 
connection with us ; and further, we heartily tender to Professor Swinton our 
cordial wishes for his prosperity and happiness in the time to come. 
Attest : MARTIN KELLOGG, Dean. 

n. 

Whereas, Necessities have required Professor William Swinton to resign the 
Chair of English Literature and History in the University of California ; there- 
fore, 

Resolved, That we, students of this University, hereby express our sense of 
a great loss and our utmost regret in losing him, at once the profound scholar 
and the genial friend. 

Resolved, That, in him, we recognize the wise counselor and abiding friend ; 
that to his learning we bow in respect, for his friendship we give him ours, and 
that in the future we wish him all happiness. Our friendship and best regard 
will make their journey with him across the continent and take up their home 
in his. 

W. R. DAVIS, 

L. S. BURCHARD, 

J. E. BUDD, 

Committee. 

With this statement of facts and opinions, I have the honor to 
remain, Your obedient servant. 

WILLIAM SWINTON. 
Sacramento, March 20th, 1874. 



THE 



NEW EDUCATION. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE SYSTEM AS TAUGHT 



IN THE 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 



" The modern world is full of artillery : and we torn out onr children to do battle in it 
•quipped with the shield and sword of an ancient gladiator. Posterity will cry Bhame on us 
if we do not remedy this deplorable state of things. Nay, if we live twenty years longer. 
v«r own oonsciencies will <vry shame on us. Modern civilization rest* upon physical 
science." — Huxly. 



San Francisco, October 2, 1874. 
HON. Gk W. PINNEY, Oakland, 

Dear Sir : — Learning that you are the author of a pamphlet entitled the 
"New Education " published over the signature " Columella,"' I request your 
consent to its publication in connection with Professor Carr's communication to 
the Joint Committee of Grangers and Mechanics, Professor Swinton's Testi- 
mony before the Legislature, and other documents relative to the Universty. 

Respectfully yours, 

W. H. BAXTER. 

Chairman Committee. 



San Francisco, October 7, 1874. 
W. H. BAXTER Esq., Chairman, etc. 

Dear Sir : — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 
2d inst. attributing to rne, the authorship of the " New Education," and re- 
questing my consent to its publication with other documents relating to the same 
subject. 

My pamphlet is protected by no copyright. I wrote and published it, with 
the hope that it might direct the attention of our agriculturists and mechanics 
to the subjects of which it treats, and to the manner in which those subjects were 
treated by the California University. These classes, which perform so important 
an office in all the industrial enterprises of our State and country, cannot dis- 
charge a higher or holier duty for humanity in this age, than to see that the 
object of Congress in the " New Education " is accomplished. They alone, can 
do it. The reform is in their hands. If it fails to realize all that is promised for 
it — all the most sanguine expectations of its founders, the blame will be theirs. 
It is emphatically a trust confided to their intelligence and energy. 

Make any use of the pamphlet that will aid the cause of the " New Educa- 
iton." My only care concerning it is, that it does not more fully and clearly 
express the lively interest, which as a citizen I feel in that most important of 
all subjects. Wishing you and the associations you represent great success, 
I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

G. W. P. 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 



" To-day," says Hoyt in his review of the Schools of Agri- 
culture, " no educational question occupies more of the attention 
of the educators and statesmen of civilized nations, than how to 
organize and operate institutions and other agencies for the de- 
velopment of agricultural science, and the diffusion of its light 
among the groping millions who cultivate the soil." In the 
entire history of educational enterprise, no other subject possess- 
es equal practical interest. Agriculture, the first of human 
pursuits, is the last to receive the aid of science. This is the 
single unexplored field, which is yet to witness the most impor- 
tant achievements of civilization. And how much there is of it 
to explore ! From the remotest antiquity, down through all the 
nations, agriculture has been the elementary pursuit, and yet, as 
compared with other occupations, how little of improvement has 
it known. Wherever and whenever experiments have been tried, 
results have been wonderful, but the earth has been too generous 
a mother to encourage experiment. Agriculture has crept stead- 
ily through the ages, enriching nations and subduing nature, 
encouraging commerce and the arts, and at all times, either of 
prosperity or adversity, proving itself the surest, safest, most 
reliable friend of the human family. 

The various processes by which agriculture has grown into an 
educational question, have been of slow accumulation, and owe 
their origin to such necessities as from time to time have ap- 
peared and been supplied in all parts of the civilized world 
The experiments of half a century in soils, in crops, in farming 
implements, in horticulture and in stock raising, have demon- 
strated the value of science in its application to every branch of 
agriculture. Papers and periodicals have been established to 
publish these discoveries. Societies have been organized to en- 
large the field of investigation. Geological surveys have been 
made at vast expense to reveal the riches of the soil. Agricul- 
tural reports have been published and circulated, together with 
seeds and plants, in great variety throughout the country. A de- 
partment of agriculture has been organized by the government 
in aid of the pursuit. County and State Fairs have been in- 
troduced to encourage farmers. Great, various and multipli- 



78 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

ed have been the means employed to develope and dignify the 
pursuit of agriculture, and to give to it a prominence and rank 
among other pursuits, to which its importance and respectability 
entitle it. The results have everywhere been attended with 
success — and not only has agriculture, but all other occupations 
been improved and enlarged by the enterprise. But every ad- 
vance made has only demonstrated more clearly, that any efforts 
less than those which contemplate a thorough fundamental 
course of instruction, that shall train and educate the agricultu- 
rist in various branches of his occupation, must fail to attain the 
high standard, which as the leading pursuit in America, agricul- 
ture should maintain. Our country with its immense agricultu- 
ral domain, fresh from the hands of the creator, has never fully 
realized the importance of agricultural education. The soil has 
always supplied our home wants, and steadily increased our 
commerece with other nations — and until our population, like 
that of Europe, becomes so great that every acre is needed to 
afford t$e means of subsistence, it will continue to do so. We 
might go on prosperously for a century or more, without any 
failure of ugricultural increase or wealth, and make no greater 
efforts than we have made to improve and elevate that pursuit, 
but with what result ? At the close of the period, we would 
have an ignorant, stationary population of farmers — a half cul- 
tivated, worn out soil, and all efforts at improvoments would then 
prove hopeless. 

The political considerations which dictate a course of thor- 
ough education for our agriculturists, are quite as important as 
any which are connected with the subject as a pursuit. Our 
farmers should understand our government as well as our soil. 
They should be as capable of comprehending human as natural 
laws, and should know how the evils of state are to be remedied, 
as well as the evils of their crops. It is this sort of an educa- 
tion that our government is seeking to introduce through the 
various colleges which have been established by its munficence. 

The question of establishing State Colleges of Agriculture 
was first agitated in America, by prominent agriculturists, in 
1837. To Michigan belongs the honor of establishing the first 
agricultural college, as long ago as 1855. Never since have the 
objects of such an institution been more fully comprehended. 
" They are, " the Act says — " firstly, to impart a knowledge of 
science and its applications to the arts of life — secondly to af- 
ford to its students the privilege of daily manual labor, that 
neither health nor inclination to labor may be lost, and that the 
principles taught in the schools may be more firmly fixed in the 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 79 

mind — thirdly, to porsecute experiments for the promotion of 
agriculture — fourthly, to offer the means of a general education 
to the farming classes." 

Similar institutions were soon chartered by the legislature of 
New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Then came the na- 
tional endowment of 1862, announcing that its object, "with- 
out excluding other scientific and classical studies, and includ- 
ing military tactics, was to teach such branches of learning a8 
are related to agricultre and the mechanic arts, in order to pro- 
mote the liberal and practical education of the industrial class- 
es in the several pusuits and professions of life." 

The donation was made for the industrial classes — mechanics, 
farmers, laborers. It made instruction in their pursuits a speci- 
alty, without excluding other scientific and classical studies. 
The chief purpose of the grant was to introduce a thorough 
course of instruction in all the States, in all branches relating to 
agriculture and mechanics. Its object was to educate that class 
of our citizens who were engaged or about to engage in these 
pursuits for a livelihood, whether as teachers or operatives — not 
those who made choice of the professions. Other institutions 
for instruction in the " higher education," as it is called, were 
numerous and well endowed. These were neglected branches 
and could not be introduced without this aid. As a consequence, 
a very large portion of our population, embracing that class en- 
gaged in the most productive pursuits of the nation, were 
deprived of the means of education in those branches pertaining 
to their occupation. 

Any other interpretation than this of the object of Congress, is 
a perversion of its meaning and intention. Any appropriation 
of the revenues derivable from the endowment, not made spe- 
cifically for the promotion of the liberal and practical education 
of the industiral classes, is a violation of good faith by the 
States which accepted it. 

Congress judged, that if properly conducted, this "new edu- 
cation " would work a long desired revolution in the leading 
pursuits of the nation, and establish their claims to a just and 
equal rank with the learned profession. Many of the best and 
strongest minds in the nation would be devoted to agriculture 
and mechanics. The results would be seen in a steady improve- 
ment of the mehanical and inventive genius of the people, and 
a triumph over nature in the reclamation of worn out soils in 
the culture of unproductive lands and in the thorough develope- 
ment of our agricultural resources. 

The gift was strictly guarded. The States were to pay all ex- 



80 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

penses. No part of the fund, either directly or indiredtly should 
be used to purchase, erect, repair or preserve any building. The 
acceptance of the land was a guarantee by the State that the capi- 
tal should be kept intact. If it became diminished or lost, the 
State should replace it. 

The effect of the endowment was inspirational. Most of the 
States responded immediately to the grand design. Less than 
twelve years have elapsed since the law was passed. At that 
time there were three agricultural colleges in the Union. Now 
there are thirty-eight. 

How did they understand the object of Congress ? We learn 
from their action. Of thirty-eight colleges that have been Or- 
ganized, thirty-two besides providing all means for scientific 
instruction, are furnished with experimental farms, and twenty- 
one make satisfactory reports of progress, in raising crops, rota- 
tion, fertilizing, selection of different varieties of stock cattle, 
horses, sheep, culture of fruit, and instruction in veterinary 
science, horticulture, &c. Appended to the report of the Presi- 
dent of Pennsylvania College for the year 1873, are tables show- 
ing what experiments have been made in rotation of crops, and 
in the use and variety of fertilizers for a period of five years - , 
commencing with 1869. Similar tables accompany the Virgin- 
ia report. Many of the reports of other States contain impor- 
tant hints on a great number of subjects connected with the 
practical cultivation, the qualities of different breeds of domestic 
animals, and comparative utility of various farming implements. 
The course of instruction, the mode in which chemical and 
other scientific experiments are practically illustrated in-door 
and out-door exercises, are set forth in many of the reports with 
distinctiveness and precsion. They express a determination to 
supply their institutions with all needful facilities for carrying 
out the purposes of the grant; and the fullest confidence in 
their power to accomplish the most sanguine hopes of their 
friends. A feeling of regret is expressed by some, that the 
grant is not large enough to justify many important expendi- 
tures. Those States that have been delayed in their organiza- 
tions, avow a determination to make up for loss of time by giving 
the subject immediate attention. 

The aggregate number of students in attendance upon these 
institutions, and the Universities with which many of them are 
connected, for the collegiate year of 1872, as we learn from the 
report of the department of agriculture, was 5373. Of this 
number, 2604 were in the Agricultural and Mechanical Coll- 
eges. A gratifying feature in these reports, is that they generally 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 81 

show an increased list of students year after year. The Presi- 
dent of the Pennsylvania College, says : — farming is not an ad 
captandum branch in the catalogue, but a regular and produc- 
tive pursuit. Chemistry is practical analysis in laboratory, the 
text book being only a basis ; botany is work in the fields, and 
not a study of pictures only ; mathematics is carried also into 
the fields, and practical surveyors and engineers are made." 

We learn from the general outline of the character of these 
institutions, that the people understand the great design of this 
new system of education, to be an enlargement upon all former 
systems, by the introduction of practical branches, which shall 
so unite the theories of learning and science with technical ex- 
emplifications, that they can be utilized in all the great pursuits 
of life. Opposed at first by a few of our leading educators, the 
system has already proved the fallacy of their strongest objec- 
tions. And such men as the lamented Agassiz, who for years 
after its introduction, was skeptical in regard to its possible 
utility, now unite with him, in the confession, that it has proven 
a complete success and is entitled to rank with other scientific 
institutions. 

Other educators have spoken of the system in terms of the 
highest commendation. President White of the Cornell Uni- 
versity, says : 

"It is to proyide fully for an industrial, scientific, and general education 
suited to our land and time — an education in which scientific and industral 
studies should knit into its very core, while other studies should also be provid- 
ed for. And, besides this, as it has been seen that the States in rebellion had 
gained great advantage from the military education of students, it was declared 
that intsruction in military tactics shall also be included. ~,.~ 

"This act of 1862 was, then, a noble, comprehensive scheme, looking, as you 
see, first of all at the industries of tlie nation, but at the same time insisting on 
provision for the broadest scientific and general culture." 

President Clark of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, 
says of it : 

" The opportunity for acquiring a valuable education is offered to all Jthe 
young men of the country, and if the farmers desire to have their sons trained 
in the best manner to pursue intelligently the profession of their fathers, let 
them patronize the College. If however there are others who wish to have their 
sons enjoy the advantages of scientific and literary culture, under circumstances 
calculated to interest them in practical affairs, and to prepare them for a life of 
industry and usefulness, they have equal rights with the farmers, and shall have 
eqally cordial welcome." 

President Read of the University of the State of Missouri, 
says: 

" This school is to be a school both of science and its applications; its pur- 
pose to teach knowledge and art — first to know, and then to do, and to do it in 
the best manner. The popular objection to our Colleges takes this form, ' too 
much theory — too little practice. ' As an educator, I have long been convinced 
that, even as a part of discipline itself, the practical should follow the theoretic, 



82 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

as its natural compliment and sequel, and without this, all discipline is defective 
and insufficient. 

"There has been a great struggle on this question, what shall the education 
of our higher institutions be? Nor is the question yet settled. There is perhaps 
no subject upon which it is more difficult to break away from our natural con- 
servatism — perhaps I had better say our old prejudices — than education. We 
cling not only to the subjects and methods in which we have been taught, but 
even tolerate usages connected with our institutions which almost outrage hu- 
manity. 

* * * * * * * * 

" The prejudices of early education, natural taste, the pursuits of Professorial 
life, a fondness for classical criticism, caused me to over value what I best un- 
stood, and upon which I had spent years of study. Thus much I may be per- 
mitted to say as to myself. I do not now undervalue any part of my education — 
whether that of science or letters. But this I do say, in the shortness of human 
life, after proper rudimentary training, we must resort to special courses. This 
is the tendency of our great Universitie, and with this freedom of courses there 
is no reason to keep up controversy. Time will solve problems which now dis- 
turb the minds of men, and doubtless will sweep away many of our most cher- 
ished opinions. But on the subject of an adapted or special education, there 
cannot be longer dispute among thinking men." 

Professor Swinton late of the University of California, and 
whose capabilities as a teacher are well known to all our readers, 

says : 

" The progress, success and benefits of the industrial Universities and Col- 
leges founded by Congress to promote agriculture and the mechanic arts, con- 
sidering the means employed, the recentness of their establishment, and the ob- 
struction put in their way by the caste prejudice of the classicists and scientific 
schoolmen, have been far beyond that of any other higher institutions of learn- 
ing in the country, and form indeed the most inspiring educational fact of the 
nineteenth century." 

Opinions of similar character, uttered by the leading educa- 
tors of this country and Europe, might be quoted to fill a vol- 
ume, but let these suffice to correct any impression unfavorable 
to the system, which may have gained currency through local 
opposition, or "caste prejudice." It is certain, that to day, the 
new system of education is rapidly growing in favor with those 
who, on its first appearance, regraded it with great distrust. 

We have not considered in this opposition of the classicist, 
the opposition of those who fear the developements of science, 
and distrust that sort of mental training which looks beyond 
theory for a confirmation of its assumptions. Their number is 
diminishing daily, by natural causes ; some still remain to dis- 
pute even the truths of geology, because they overturn the theo- 
ry of the six days creation, and destroy their hopes of future 
salvation. They never will be persuaded that a union of theory 
with practice, which bases truth upon experiment, can fail to 
produce a nation of infidels. There is no such God as they 
have worshiped, and no such Heaven as they hope to attain in 
such a system. To all such, we have no other reply, than that 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 83 

there is no truth in the universe too sacred for investigation. 
We have a little respect for the opinions of those who fear the 
eifects a of thorough scientific training, as for those who, after 
searching nature through all her works, cannot look up through 
them to " Nature's God." 

We need be at no loss to comprehend the views entertained 
of the " new education," by its most munificent patrons. Ezra 
Cornell inspired to the act by the Congressional donation, gave 
nearly a million dollars to create a University where, in his own 
sententious language, "any person can find instruction in any 
study." Agriculture and mechanics illustrated by experiments 
in the field and in the workshop, and embracing all practical 
details of the manner in which those pursuits should be con- 
ducted, are among the most prominent branches taught in that 
institution. No distinction is recognized between professional 
and industrial students. No student can pass through his four 
years course, without receiving as a condition for graduation a 
course of lectures on general agriculture. 

What but the increasing confidence of educators in the sys- 
tem, could have induced old Harvard, our model University, to 
take under its protection the institution established in execu- 
tion of the trust created by the will of Benjamin Bussy ? This 
school is intended for the following class of persons : 

"1. Young men who intend to become practical farmers, gardeners, florists, 
or landscape gardeners. 

2. Young men who will naturally be called upon to manage large estates — 
such as the sons of large farmers and of city men who own country places. 

3. Young men of character, good judgment and native force, who have 
neither taste nor aptitude for literary studies, but being fond of country life 
and observant of natural objects, would make when thoroughly trained, good 
stewards or overseers of gentlemen's estates. 

4. Teachers, or young men preparing to be teachers, who expect to be called 
upon to teach some of the subjects taught in this schools. 

5. Persons who wish to familiarize themselves with some special branch of 
Agriculture, Horticulture or applied Zoology. 

A year's study in the Lawrence Scientific School also con- 
nected with the University, is required as preparatory to entry 
into the Bussy institution. In these two institutions, the student 
has the instruction of thirty-five different teachers on special 
branches of the science of agriculture. The instruction is il- 
lustrated by the rich scientific collections of Harvard Universi- 
ty ; a botanic garden, a large and profitable farm, green houses, 
propagating houses and field experiments. 

To come nearer home. Among the munificent donations of 
our fellow citizen ; James Lick, none will benefit a larger or 
more deserving class, than the $300,000 appropriated to the 
erection and endowment of a school for the mechanics in San 



84 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

Francisco. And yet, without the confidence inspired by the 
public estimation, in which that branch of instruction is held, 
the donation wo aid never have been made. 

Such benefactions as these show how strong a hold the new 
education has taken on the public mind. The object of Peter 
Cooper in establishing his institute in New York City, was to 
furnish a kind of practical instruction, which could not be ob- 
tained in the higher institutions. He could have endowed sev- 
eral professorships in Yale or Harvard with the same money 
but as the result of his experiment has proved, he would never 
have been regarded as a benefactor, by thousands who have 
been rescued from the hard life by city drudgery, for more 
profitable and congenial occupation. He might have aided the 
" higher education," but he would not have aided the education 
of the poor and lowly. 

The Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges bridge over the 
gulf in educational facilities, that has hertofore existed between 
the professional and industrial classes. They break down the 
royal road to learning, and give dignity to the most useful pur- 
suits of life, equal to that claimed for the most learned. They 
educate alike the head and the hand, and train the muscles and 
sinews to obey the thought. They make the soil and its pro- 
ducts a study which will contribute more to the greatness and 
wealth of the nation, more to the happiness and elevation of 
our race, than any other institution in the world. 

These practical advantages commend themselves to the sym- 
pathies and support of that great portion of our fellows who are 
to be benefited by them. The wealthy farmer, mechanic or 
merchant who fails to appreciate, and hence to admit, the par- 
ticular utility of a classical education, and closes his purse 
strings against every appeal to aid it, cannot be blind to the 
wide spread and practical blessings which must flow from this 
new system, nor deaf to the claims it has upon his class of so- 
ciety for assistance in the hour of need. Nothing is more cer- 
tain in the future, if we may judge from the records of the past, 
than that the " new education " when generally undersood and 
appreciated, will never want for means necessary to effect its 
widest dissemination. 

The " new education " will make mechanical and agricultural 
pursuits attractive. The country needs farmers and mechanics 
more than it needs lawyers, physicians and clergymen. The 
professions are all overcrowded. More than half the number 
of those engaged in them, eke out an unprofitable, unremuner 
ative existence ; few in proportion attain to eminence, and many 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 85 

depend upon other pursuits for the acquisisition of wealth. One 
great reason for this is, that neither farming or mechanics of 
themselves, present to the youthful mind, especially to young 
men of ambition and enterprise, any of those opportunities for 
intellectual renown, which are the necessary conditions of suc- 
cessful professional life. The avenues to cultivated society, to 
acquaintance with men of eminence, to intimacy in personal 
relations with men of education, are opened grudgingly to the 
most successful agriculturists and mechanics ; and to those in 
humble condition closed altogether. The new system, by making 
these pursuits intellectual as well as useful, will obtain for them 
an equal rank with the professions. Let our young men see 
that equal opportunity is afforded for eminence in the one pur- 
suit as the other, and the time will soon come when our great 
men and rulers will as often be found among the industrial as 
the professional classes. Farmer's sons will then from choice 
follow the occupation of their sires ; but will be none the less 
qualified to fill with ability and dignity, the highest positions in 
public life. 

But these pursuits to be made attractive must have thorough 
culture. The lessons of the lecture room must be illustrated in 
the field and the workshop. These are the real laboratories 
where the student can practice and observe the benefits of ap- 
plied science — the only means by which he can make an ac- 
complishment of an otherwise hard and laborious occupation. 

The culture too, without being necessarily ornamental or ele- 
gant, must be liberal and comprehensive, so as to afford the 
student an outlook from his pursuit upon the world of science 
and letters, but this must not be mistaken for the grand object 
of his life. 

Nothing less than a thorough, radical course of instruction 
can ever convince the farmers and mechanics of the utility of 
the new system. They are not as a class scientific men. They 
must have practical exemplification of the utility of these col- 
leges before they can give them their confidence. If they can 
see the experiments in agriculture and horticulture — the select- 
ed stock, the crops, the fruits, if they can receive the seeds, read 
the results of the various methods of handling, reclaiming and 
fertilizing soils, the information thus given them will do more 
to build up colleges and fill them with students, than all the 
labor and instruction of the class room. It is but fair to pre- 
sume that it was because they did not see any of these appli- 
ances to successful culture in the University of California, 
that the two great producing classes of the State memoralized 



86 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

the Legislature on the subject at its recent session. And what 
did they say— listen : 

" Believing that the first and higest employment of men is to feed, shelter 
.and clothe the world, we ask that the graduates of our industrial college may be 
peers of scholars in mental culture, and peers of laborers in manual skill and 
physical developement. Agriculture in its various departments should be so 
taught and practiced in our University as to send forth scientific farmers, whose 
labor and skill can utilize the soil and delvelope its greatest resources while the 
mechanical department should graduate learned and skilled mechanics ; and it is 
the earnest desire of the agriculturists and mechanics of this state to make these 
great departments of industry the leading feature of our State University." 

Was this appeal unnatural ? The University had been in 
existence six years. It had received the government endowment 
and was virtually pledged by its charter to establish among its 
first departments a College of Agriculture and a College of 
Mechanics. Thirty-two colleges for instruction in these pur- 
suits had been established in as many States of the Union, and 
were in successful operation. The farmers and mechanics learn- 
ed from the reports they had made to the government, that they 
were not only provided with all necessary scientific apparatus, 
but they had farms under cultivation, green houses, arboretums, 
orchards, that they were raising fine stock in cattle, horses and 
sheep, making numerous experiments in all the varieties of cul- 
ture, and the occupations incidental to farm life, and realizing 
to a very considerable degree all the beneficent purposes of their 
creation. The same volume which contained these facts, in- 
formed them, under the authority of the new President of their 
University, that while they have a farm, " students were not in- 
structed in agriculture outside of the school room/' They knew 
from observations that agriculture and mechanics were virtually 
ignored, and that nothing would be done to assign them a prop- 
er status in the curriculum of the institution, unless legislation 
compelled it. These were the reasons which caused this com- 
plaint by the people. 

The attempt to ridicule this demand of the people in the edi- 
torial pages of a recent number of the Atlantic Monthly, is not 
the least objectional feature in an article whose distinguishing 
qualities are ingenuity of misrepresentation, and utter barren- 
ness of fact. The very memorial, there so flippantly character- 
ized, came near destroying the University. Neither the President 
or the Board of Regents replied to the legislative demand* for 
information, which followed the memorial with lightness, or in 
a tone of assumed superiority. It required all their adroitness 
to gloss over, cover up and conceal the charges arrayed in the 
bold and manly indictment of the people. And to prove that 
they did not, as is intimated in the Atlantic article, originate in 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 



87 



any capricious desire of " the uninformed, who wanted a good 
thing,"" or in " popular clamor," but in the most substantial 
causes for complaint, we have only to refer to a few of the de- 
velopements they occasioned. 

It is only necessary in this connection to refer to the reply ot 
the Professor of Agriculture, to inquiries by the Board of Re- 
gents as to the need and feasibilities of the institution, which is 
published with the statement of the board made in reply to the 
qustions of the Legislature. He says : 

"What I regard as feasible, and imperatively necessary, is first the adoption 
of a plan of operations for the practical development of the department. 

That an annual appropriation of $500 be made for the purchase of seeds, etc. 
of our indigenous vegetation, for home use, exchanges, etc. ; . 

That an annual appropriation of $500 be made for the purchase and introduc- 
tion of fruit trees not existing in this State. u 

That a oreen house and a small porpagating house be erected. I hat a compe- 
tent gardener be appointed. That it shall be the duty of the Professor of Agri- 
culture to superintend these operations, etc. t ^ 

To this I would add, I consider important not to lose another season ot growth, 
and that the labor of students be utilized with a view to confer skill in the pur- 
suits of Agriculture and Horticulture. % . 

2 The employment of experts in special culture, as the vine, silk, nsti, in 
veterinary science, agricultural entomology, and the mechanics of agriculture, 
to give from four to fifteen lectures annually on each of the above specialties. 

3. The holding at the University of an annual farmers' institute, tor the dis- 
cussions and comparisons of views and methods, as has-been done at other agri- 
cultural colleges, (especially Illinois; see State reports.)" 

Now it is certain, that when this letter was written (Feb. 26, 
1874,) our University was in need of all the aids to agricultu- 
ral instruction mentioned in it, and yet these are among the 
very first auxiliaries to instruction provided by other institu- 
tions. Indeed the Professor of Agriculture has been soliciting 
the Board of Regents for them, for the past four years, all ot 
which period he has been lecturing and striving with such slen- 
der means as the Board allowed, to give instruction in agncul- 

jiiyp 

The memorial, among much other matter; called forth this 
letter, which tells its own story of our Agricultural College for 
the past six years. Was there not cause for " popular clamor ? 
And does it not prove, that while farmers and mechanics are 
duly observant of their own rights, they will not be satisfied 
with anything less than a thorough institution. 

No greater or more important object was contemplated m the 
establishment of these institutions, than that of educating and 
qualifying teachers in mechanics and agriculture. A demand 
for instruction in these pursuits would be a natural outgrowth 
of the system. As this increased, the College as an advanced 
educator, would become as indispensable as the normal school 



88 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

in the preparation of teachers for our common schools. The 
instructor in these sciences would rank with other men of learn- 
ing. The young man who made choice of this occupation would 
meet with hundreds of subjects in the wide field afforded him 
for experiment and investigation, full of much needed practical 
information. The opportunities for authorship upon new appli- 
cations of science would be illimitable, and each improvement 
of them would probably prove a benefaction to the world. Brief 
as has been the existence of these institutions, they have al- 
ready demonstrated their tendency to an efficiency in this kind 
of culture. But these labors have been the result of faithful, 
persistent experiment in the field and in the laboratory. In so 
vast a field as that of agriculture, where millions are involved 
in the success or failure of a single product, a single discovery 
will oftimes prove of more value than the entire endowment of 
the institution credited with making it. 

President White of Cornell University, speaking of the " fit- 
ting up an establishment for experiments in the best rotation of 
crops and in the feeding of cattle," says that the Hon. George 
G-eddes, whose jugment in such matters is beyond dispute, said 
in allusion to it : 

" This experiment fairly tried will be worth to the State of New York more 
than your whole endowment, no matter which way it turns out — no matter 
whether soiling is found profitable or unprofitable." 

The same compliment has been paid to the Massachusetts 
Agricultural College by no less an educator than Professor Ag- 
assiz, who declared that the production of the single paper on 
the circulation of sap in the sugar maple and other species of 
trees, " was an ample return for all that had been expended on 
the College/' 

No State in the union possesses greater or more numerous in- 
terests than ours, to be benefited by valuable discoveries in va- 
rious kinds of culture — in farming implements — in agricultural 
manufactures, and in the selection and improvement of stock. 
The same may be said of its varied opportunities to profit by 
improvements in mining and operative mechanics. If our Uni- 
versity could furnish a teacher a year competent to give techni- 
cal instruction in these branches, the benefit of the industrial 
and agricultural classes derivable from his labors would be in- 
calculable. Keflect for a moment upon the vast yield even now 
of our fields and mines, and then contemplate if you can, their 
probable increase within the next quarter of a century. Is it 
not worth all that we can do, both with the governmental bounty 
and the products of voluntary munificence to make our Colleges 
equal to the demand of this immense theatre for a display of 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 89 

their capabilities ? Shall they fail for the want of any appilance 
either of science or illustration in giving value to any experi- 
ments which may enhance the interests of the State ? 

In enumerating the various objects sought by the new system, 
that of furnishing our young men whose tastes incline them to 
adopt agriculture or mechanics as a pursuit, with the means of 
liberal and special culture is very prominent. How many, fitted 
by nature to adorn these occupations, nave frittered away their 
lives in those of less congenial character for want of the proper 
aids to developement, or because of some supposed inferiority of 
condition incident to an industrial life. All such, and there are 
thousands in every commonwealth, can now indulge their predi- 
lections without sacrificing their ambition. They are the men 
who make the best farmers and mechanics who fail in profess- 
ional life, and in the walks prescribed by what is termed par 
excellence, the "higher education." Unfitted by inclination for 
classical pursuits, and still ambitious of renown, now that the 
way is open, they will leave for others better qualified the devi- 
ous paths of politics, journalism and the learned professions, to 
climb by a more harmonious route the mount of immortality. 
And for this great multitude which is to supply the nation with 
its future artists, mechanics, engineers and farmers, the way 
should be made as plain and easy as possible. They will need 
all that applied science can do to fit them for life work. If to 
make the perfect scholar, the eminent divine, the adroit lawyer, 
the great statesman, a large foreground of ancient and modern 
culture is indispensable, so is it equally urgent that to produce 
men similarly equipped for industrial renown, they should have 
an education which unites with liberal knowledge the most thor- 
ough training in their chosen pursuits. The eye, the ear, the 
hand, the muscle, must each obey the creative dictates of the 
brain. 

Is it claiming too much for this new system, to say that in its 
future growth and developement it may afford a more practical 
solution of the question, what shall we do with our boys? than 
any plan yet submitted to the public. The best use we can 
make of a young man is to educate him. As a general rule ed- 
ucation overcomes depravity. That class of population which 
we call "our boys," is idle, vicious, and growing up in crime, 
because it has no reputable means of support. As noble minds, 
as generuos hearts, as ambitious hopes, as pure and lofty aims, 
animate these boys as any other class, if they can only be pro- 
vided with means for their developement. Afford them the op- 
portunity for culture, and tell them what it will do for them, 



90 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

and how many of them will refuse to avail themselves of it? 
It will require money to accomplish such an object, but to what 
better use can money be applied ? Is it not better in every 
point of view to pay for the cultivation of " our boys," than to 
pay for their prosecution ? Is not such culture as they can ob- 
tain from the new system of education, to be preferred to for- 
cing them into service as seamen ? Give to this new education 
all the scope it require for a ^perfect developement, and educa- 
tion will become as much an obligation in this government as it 
is in Prussia. When that day arrives, California will cease to 
ask : what shall we do with our boys ? The remarkable imita- 
tive faculty of the Chinese gives them a great advantage over 
our own laborers in obtaining emplopment. This would not be 
the case in Prussia or the German States, where the use of tools 
is taught as part of the ordinary system of instruction. The 
new education will not be confined to colleges any longer than 
is necessary to open the eyes of the thinking masses to the im- 
portance of its introduction in the elementary schools. Dr. 
Huxley truthfully says : 

" At present, education is almost entirely devoted to the cultivation of the 
power of expression, and of the sense of literary beauty. The matter of having 
anything to say beyond a hash of other people's opinions ; or of possessing any 
criterion of beauty so that we may distinguish between the godlike and the 
devilish, is left aside as of no moment. I think I do not err in saying that if 
science were made the foundation of education, instead of being at most stuck on 
the cornice to the edifice, this state of things could not exist." 

The same writer advocates the instruction of physical science as a leading el- 
ment of education in " those primary schools, in which the children of the poor 
are expected to turn to the best account the little time they can devote to the ac- 
quisition of knowledge." 

" What I mean is," he says, " that no boy or girl should leave school without 
possessing a grasp of the general character of science, and without having been 
disciplined more or less in the methods of all sciences ; so that when turned into 
the world to make their own way. they shall be prepared to face scientific prob- 
lems, not by knowing at once the conditions of every problem, or by being able 
at once to solve it ; but by being familiar with the general current of scientific 
thought, and by being able to apply the methods of science in the proper way 
when they have acquainted themselves with the special problem." 

Can we not see that this course of instruction when pursued 
under a compulsory law, must produce a more efficient and self 
reliant people than any now adopted ? Such a system for all 
our schools will sooner or later be evolved as a natural and 
necessary result of the success of our Agricultural and Mechan- 
ical Colleges. 

Is the scheme adopted and published of our University cal- 
culated to accomplish any of the objects sought by the new 
system ? We have before us the register of the University, the 
statements of the Kegents to the joint committee of the Legis- 
lature, and the address of President Gilnian before the Legisla- 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 91 

ture. These are supposed to contain the views of the officers 
of the University relating to the agricultural and mechanical 
college, and the methods of instruction in those particular branch- 
es. If we are to interpret the register by the statements of the 
Kegents and the address of the President, we shall learn that 
there is in fact but one Professor in each of the special branches 
— and that the other instruction purporting to be given by the 
special colleges is the same in all, and in no degree differs from 
the course of instruction of those colleges which have no spe- 
cial courses. In other words, all that a special student in agri- 
culture or mechanics learns from other professors, than the two 
charged with those specialities, he could learn at Yale or Bow- 
doin, or any other University which has no agricultural or me- 
chanical department. These two colleges therefore, have one 
Porfessor each and no more. In all other respects the Univer- 
sity of California is simply a college of letters. Neither agri- 
culture or mechanics can be considered the " leading object " of 
the institution, unless it can be made to appear that all the 
English branches ordinarily taught in our colleges relate to these 
pursuits. The register is deceptive, and without explanation, 
would convey the impression that both the Agricultural and 
Mechnical Colleges were supplied with a separate faculty, and 
pursued such courses of instruction as were generally adopted 
by other scientific institutions. 

Very little has yet been done either in the agricultural or me- 
chanical department of the University, still, if there were any 
promise of completness in the future, this might not be the 
proper time to complain of the past. But if every promise for 
the future were fulfilled, the institution would be deficient in 
those ample means and forms of instruction so generally adopt- 
elsewhere. Both the President and the Board of Regents seem 
to realize that some sort of apology is necessary to the public 
as well for past deficiencies, as for the future shape they intend 
to give to agricultural and mechanical instruction. 

"If," say 8 the President, "careful inquiry should show that under the most 
favorable circumstances (such as large funds, fine farms, capital teachers, and 
practical co-operators,) the friends of agricultural education in Germany and in 
France, in New England and in the Mississippi Valley, were disappointed ; and 
that men as eager as any of you to promote the progress of agriculture, have 
abandoned many of 'the hopes they held and the plans they tried here within the 
last few years, and are now seeking by other methods to reach the same result, 
would it not be wise for California to avail herself of this experience. ?" 

"Would it not be well before determining to make any radical change in the 
organization of the University, or' increasing any extraordinary expenses, to 
ascertain the lessons of experience elsewhere?" 

In the illustration of his meaning, the President cites the in- 



92 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

stances of one French and one German Agricultural College, 
having changed their locations from country to city, in order tf 
obtain for their students the benefit of the libraries, museums 
and courses of instruction of other institutions, and of there 
having been but seven students in agriculture among four hun- 
dred and sixty-one in attendance upon the Cornell University, 
and three in the Bussey Institution the past year. 

It is quite clear that so much of this illustration as relates t# 
the change of location in the Colleges alluded to, can have no 
reference to our agricultural and mechanical colleges. They 
are part of a University. They have or are supposed to have 
all the benefits of the highest culture. The students can attend 
all the lectures, have access to the museums and libraries, and 
other courses of instruction so far as necessary to facilitate their 
progress in the special branches. 

As to the other point, that so few students attend the Agri- 
cultural Colleges, it has been fully answered by Dr. White, the 
President of Cornell University. He says : 

" That the number is at present very small, but I presume that no thougtful 
man expected that so early a period after the establishment, the number would be 
very large, nor, indeed do I expect that for some years to come the number will 
greatly increase. In a new country like ours, those professions which present 
the most brilliant returns will be sought for first." 



" There are those who are now living amongst us, who will stand among a 
hundred millions of citizens within the boundaries of this Republic. When that 
day comes — nay, long before — the present condition of things must change. 
The present system of routine cultivation, this present system of ' skinning ' 
lands and then running away to soils more fruitful, for the intention of robbing 
and running away from them in turn, cannot last. Men must get a subsistence 
on less and less land ; and they can only get it by bringing to bear upon il better 
cultivation." 



" But suppose that no young men came forward to take agricultural studides, 
the new education would still tell powerfully on agriculture. Think you that 
we can send out year after year, as we did last year, a hundred graduates front 
all our various departments, whose powers of observation have been trained and 
whose real knowledge of subjects bearing on agriculture has bean extended by 
close study in Botany, Animal Physiology, Geology and Chemistry, w ithout ito 
telling ultimately on the progress of agriculture ?" 

Here is the reply of one President to an objection made by 
another. We leave to our readers to decide which has the bet- 
ter of the argument. 

With this reply we might take leave to President G-ilman's 
objections, but his omission to give credit to the large number 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 93 

of these institutions, both in Europe and America, that have 
been successful, exposes his argument to the charge of insincer- 
ity. It is in part no objection to the system, nor does it sup- 
port in the smallest degree the suppositious proposition that the 
" friends of agricultural education " have anywhere " abandon- 
ed many of the hopes they have held and the plans tney have 
tried within the last few years, and are now seeking by other 
methods to reach the same result." On the contrary it is con- 
clusive of the fact that they are everywhere engaged in perfect- 
ing the system with which they have commenced. No system 
of education ever introduced, encountered fewer difficulties in 
its methods, and none in so brief a period, where experiments 
have been honestly made, has been rewarded with more encour- 
aging results. 

The objection of President Gilman is poorly fortified by the 
Board of Regents. They mistake the people as much as they 
mistake their own duties in the following unsatisfactory and ar- 
rogant announcement . 

" They have been minutely informed of the difficulties encountered elsewhere 
in the solution of this problem, of the disappointments and changes which have 
occurred in other well known institutions, and of the local complaints which 
have been uttered respecting the very Colleges and Universities whose example 
they are urged to follow." 

Do they tell the people of what these " disappointsments and 
changes " and " local complaints " consist ? Oh no ! this is what 
they say : 

" They beg those who are interested in the problem to examine the catalogues, 
registers, and reports of other State Colleges, and not rest their opinions upon 
vague and inaccurate rumors of hostile criticisms." 

We will not presume to say what was expected of this re- 
quest, but we have complied with it to the extent of our power. 
And we find that in no single instance have these institutions 
encountered any difficulties, or disappointments, or changes that 
were impediments to their establishment or progress. All new 
enterprises require great consideration in the outset. But none 
of these institutions have failed, though unlike each other in 
in some important particulars, where a sincere effort has been 
made to introduce them. 

President White of Cornell University, speaking with refer- 
ence to this feature, says : 

" It may appear to some that this difference in modes of carrying out the act 
in the different States was a misfortune. Far from it. I am prepared to main- 
tain against all comers, that of all the good fortune which has attended the car- 
rying out of the acts of 1862, this variety of plans and methods in the various 
States was the best." 

We should be sorry to perceive under these objections of the 



94 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

President and Eegents, a covert hostility to any instruction in 
agriculture and mechanics inseparable from belles lettres learn r 
ing. But with the reasoning of the President, and the course 
of agricultural instruction indicated, we hardly know in what 
other light to consider them. They certainly are favorable to- 
no course of agricultural instruction now in vogue in Europe or 
America. In the former country, where they have had an ex- 
perience of half a century or more and millions have been ex- 
pended on these branches of education alone, where large and 
flourishing institutions exist in great numbers, especially in 
Germany, it is strange that there cannot be found one college 
after which to mould a suitable institution for California. 

Nor can we see the wisdom in awaiting the results of greater 
expreience. If the educational system of Hohenheim, the roy- 
al industrial schools of Saxony, the polytechnic school of Han- 
over, and the colleges of agriculture and mechanics in nearly 
every State in the Union furnish no exemplars, the whole sys- 
tem may be safely pronounced a failure, and the sooner we fall 
back into the old educational grooves and surrender all ideas of 
imgrovement the better. 

But is this the case. Mr. J. W. Hoyt, the United States 
Commissioner to the Great Paris Exposition, who examined into , 
the cause of education in both Europe and America, speaks 
most encouragingly of all the Agricultural and Polytechnic 
Colleges of Europe. One nowhere gleans from any portion of 
his critical and detailed analysis of them a single idea to justify 
the implied inadequacy attributed to them by President Gilman. 
He says however, that : 

" Association between scientific and literary departments, if upon terms of 
equality and fraternity, is desirable, but not otherwise. The friends of agricu- 
ture should make sure therefore in effecting consolidation with any institution of 
different character and aims, first that the articles of association are wisely 
drawn, and what is no less important, that the administration of the new and 
dual institution be confided to men of large, comprehensive and impartial views." 

An admonition, which, if it would make our Agricultural and 
Mechanical College of any efficiency, our people would do well 
to heed ! 

But even President Gilman and the Board of Eegents are not 
quite ready to sacrifice the colleges to their own unsupportable 
predictions of failure. The endowment of '62 will pay for a 
show of compliance with its requisitions. The prospect of a 
further increase of their revenues of $30,000 a year, is not a 
thing to be slighted, and if they do not feel like giving the peo- 
ple the benefit of thorough instructions like Cornell University, 
the Bussy Institution or the Massachusetts Agricultural College, 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 95 

they can, at least, give them a semblance in those directions. 
So, after declaring that Agricultural Colleges are not exactly 
failures, the President tells us what the University should have 
in order to complete its facilties for agricultural instruction. 
When summarized, these recommendations consist as follows : 

1. Of a Profossor of Agriculture, who when he is provided with adequate 
facilitses, is free to make experiments, the benefits of which may teach the whole 
State, while he gives special instruction to special agriculturists, and general in- 
struction to other students. 

2. Two Professorships devoted on the one hand to vegetable life, and on the 
other to animal life. 

3. Instruction in Natural Philosophy, Geology, Natural History, Chemistry, 
analysis of soils, fertilizers and products, political economy, laws of exchange, 
value and price, the use of the English language, and as many modern lan- 
guages as the student pleases, history and the principles of civil rights. 

Nearly all the instructions in the foregoing paragraph is in- 
separable from every University curriculum in the country. Of 
itself, it belongs no more to agriculture than to all the other 
branches of education, and though necessary, by no means sup- 
plies the places of special instruction. 

4. A Museum of vegetable products. 

5. A Botanical Garden with an arboretum. 

6. As these enterprises mature, practical instruction to be given in the modes 
of culture, and the right treatment of plants, shrubs and trees. 

7. Experiments all over the State as to the conditions of growth under differ- 
ent skies and soils, different fertilizers, different culture. 

With such instruction as these facilities may afford, the Cal- 
ifornia Agricultural College expects to send forth farmers to 
cultivate our great valleys, teachers to instruct the world, and 
physical scientists to investigate and make discoveries in all the 
processes of culture and arts incident to farm life. The " hopes" 
which President Gilman represents to have been disappointed in 
the institutions of Europe, New York and New England, are 
to be fully realized in this course of instruction, and all those 
"objections and difficulties " which the Board of Regents well 
knew, but would not divulge, are to be overcome by obtaining 
for it a continuance of public favor. 

Compare this instruction with that given by the eight profes- 
sors and ten teachers of Cornell University, who are engaged 
in the special instruction of agriculture alone. That comprises 
the following subjects : 

1. The Chemistry of Agriculture, including the constituents and analytical 
composition of soils and of cultivated plants, the constituents and chemical 
agencies of the atmosphere and of water, and the composition of manures. 

2. The Geology of Agriculture, including the formation or soils, their chem- 
ical, physical, and economic character, their suitability for different kinds of 
crops, and the principal geological features of various "portions of the United 
States as affecting the soil and productions. 

3. The Physics of Agriculture, including meteorology, or the laws of climate, 



96 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

and light and heat as influencing plant life. 

4. The Mechanics of Agriculture, and their application to the various descrip- 
tions of implements and labor required on the farm. 

5. The Botany of Agriculture, including structural botany, vegetable physi- 
ology, vegetable pathology, and a knowledge of crops cultivated for food and for 
technical purposes. 

6. The Zoology of Agriculture, including the habits, diseases, and treatment 
of live stock, the anatomy of the horse, the cow, the sheep, and other farm ani- 
mals, and all branches of veterinary surgery and medicine, as well as a special 
•onsideration of insects injurious to vegetation. 

7. The Economics of Agriculture, including the sequence of agricultural 
operations, the economical divisions of labor, the rotation of crops, the imrpove- 
ment of the soil by manuring, draining, and liming, farm engineering and con- 
struction, general agricultural policy, and the management of landed property. 

The University farm consists of nearly 300 acres. Produce 
is raised upon it to feed the cattle. The most improved breeds 
of farm animals are kept. Experiments are made in rotation of 
crops, summer soiling, winter house feeding 'of cattle — growth 
of crops suitable for that purpose, comparative merits of raised 
and flat drill husbandry tested — fall and spring plowing pure — 
breed and grade cattle, &c. 

In practical agriculture, five hours weekly during the senior 
year are devoted to technical instruction ; this time being divi- 
ded between lectures, review, agricultural calculations, farm 
accounts and outdoor instruction. Students are required to 
visit the farm daily and take part in the work, when the Pro- 
lessor in charge deems it necessary for their insruction. 

Evey student is required to spend at least one vacation upon 
the farm, when, if he chooses to take part in the regular opera- 
tions, he will be paid according to his ability to work. 

Besides the class room exercises, the student devotes as much 
time as can profitably be spared for the purpose, to actual prac- 
tice in the botanical, chemical and veterinary laboratories and 
in the field. 

In addition to this ill-practical instruction, the student is 
taught in all the liberal branches of education, admitted to all 
the lectures of the University, the library, and knows no dis- 
tinction caste from his fellows who are pursuing the classics. 

Yet this noble institution, if we are to credit President Gil- 
man, has disappointed the hopes of his founders, because the 
number of its students is so small. And he offers this as a rea- 
son why our University should await the result of some more 
fortunate experiment. In the meantime our agricultural and 
mechanical students are to be fed upon such shreds and crumbs 
of knowledge as at the smallest possible expense can supporta 
claim to the increased but conditional endowment of Congress. 
For this reason a pretentious register is published, and we are 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 97 

told of teachers who have volunteered their services free of ex- 
pense. For this reason experimental stations in different parts 
of the State are to be established, in lieu of permanent and in- 
creasing facilities at the University, and these we are told " will 
do more to promote the right principles of agriculture, to in- 
crease the wealth and elevate the work of the agriculturist, 
than it will accomplish by teaching a thousand boys to plow." 
These stations are simple agencies of the agricultural schools 
of Germany, but even in their subordinate capacity, they unite 
local facilities which President Gilman fails to mention. Hoyt, 
who visited those connected with the ancient Universities of 
Halle, Jena and Gottingen, says the experimental station — 

" consists of a few acres of land — twelve to twenty — divided into small plats 
for purely experimental purposes, in the midst of, or in the immediate connec- 
tion with which there is a chemical and physical laboratory, and not unfrequent- 
ly such accommodations for domestic animals, and such general facilities for 
physiological investigation as are suggested by the problems of breeding, ordi- 
nary feeding, fattening, &c." 

He says, " they are destined not only to go hand in hand with the agricultu- 
ral schools, but to be established in many cases independently, and where it is 
neither practicable or needful to establish a school." 

Even with all these facilities, with laboratories, and domestic 
animals to make the experiment certain, Hoyt says, " they can- 
not settle all the questions that must arise, since many of them 
are limited in scope by circumstauces of locality, and can only 
be determined on the very spot where they arise." 

But these are not the kind of stations described by President 
Gilman. Those have no laboratories or domestic animals, and 
make no provision for the problems of breeding, ordinary feed- 
ing, fattening, &c. They are simply " experiments as to the 
conditions of growth under different skies and soils, different 
fertilizers, different culture." All well enough as far as it goes, 
but wanting in the thoroughness of scientific instruction, and 
exactly of a piece with the remainder of the patchwork system 
recommended by the President. 

Such stations as those of Europe established thoroughout Cal- 
ifornia, would far exceed in expense the fullest possible equip- 
ment of the University, and after all was completed, and they 
were in successful operation, they would only be "agencies in 
the great work of agricultural education. All the other appli- 
ances would be just as needful with as without them. 

The merit of President Gilman 's stations would be that they 
would "require very little land, and very little outlay," and we 
might add, that in the form which we give them, they would 
accomplish very little good. In any event, they would certain- 
ly prove miserable substitutes for that thought practical and 



yo THE NEW EDUCATION. 

scientific knowledge which a student would acquire either at 
Cornell. Bussy or the Massachusetts Agricultural College. 
They might, as the President remarks, do more for agriculture 
than the science could derive from "teaching a thousand boys to 
plow." And yet plowing has been thought enough of at Cor- 
nell to justify the importation of "Baw plows" for the instruc- 
tion of the students. The subject can hardly be disposed of by 
a sneer. 

Our Board of Regents inform us that the College of Agricul- 
ture, which was the first established among the Colleges of arts, 
"has been steadily maintained from its commencement with no 
diminution of its curriculum, but with increased advantages." 
How have its advantages been increased? At a meeting of the 
Board of Eegents in July, 1872, Mr. Bolander, the chairman of 
a special committee to report on the expedience of establishing 
an experimental garden, put the following questions to the 
Board : 

"Shall we not test the technological value of our native vegetable products? 
Have we studied our various kinds of timber as to strength and durability? 
Have we studied our native vegetations, as to the fibres, resins, gums, dyes, pa- 
per materials, drugs, oils, etc., it may contain? Do we know as yet any chemi- 
cal educts of our plants? Do we know the yield in potash by our native grega- 
rious plants? Have we examined into the yield of the iodine and bromine of our 
immense masses of sea weeds? Have we made any toxicological researches of 
plants so injurious to stock ? 

These are questions in Chemistry, a branch which it is claim- 
ed the institution is prepared, to teach. No excuse can be offer- 
ed for neglecting it, yet these questions would not have been 
asked by one of the Regents, if the subjects to which they refer 
had ever received attention — subjects which would naturally be 
among the first exercises of a class in chemical agriculture. 

Mr. Bolander then proceeds to recommend that the Board of 
Regents "locate immediately such portions of the University 
domain as are to be devoted to Agriculture and Horticulture, 
and cause the same to be accurately surveyed and mapped. 

1. For an orchard specimen fruits of all kinds likely to be successfully and 
profitably raised in some portion of this State, at least five acres. 

2. For vineyard, mulberry, textile and oil producing plants, four acres. 

3. For culinary vegetables and small fruits, two acres. 

4. For the cultivation of all kinds of useful fruits and shade trees, ten acres. 

5. For the cultivation of indigenous and foreign and medicinal plants, one 
acre. 

6. For the cultivation of all our native arborescent plants , to serve as a prac- 
tical introductin to the study of Botany for the students, three acres." 

He then recommends further: 

1. "That an annual appropriation of $500 be made for the purchase of all kinds 
of seeds of our indigenous vegetation. These seeds shall be used for exchanges 
with foreign institutions of a similar nature. 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 99 

2. That an annual appropriation of $500 be made for the purchase and intro- 
duction of fiuit trees not existing in this State. 

3. That an industrial museum be established with a phy to-chemical laborato- 
ry to test the usefulness of plants. 

4. That a greenhouse and a small propagating house be erected. 

5. That a competent and a scientific gardener be employed to lay out the 
grounds, and take charge of the entire work. 

6. That the preservation, drying and packing of all kinds of fruit be made a 
special subject of investigation. 

7. That vinegar and wine making, silk culture distillation of volatile oil, and 
paper making be taught in connection with agriculture and horticulture. 

8. That it shall be the duty of the Professor of Agriculture to superintend all 
operations connected with the experimental gardens, to open correspondence with 
acclimatization societies and institutions of like purpose in foreign countries, and 
to report annually to the Board of Regents on the progress and conditions of the 
garden. These reports shall be published at once and distributed at large. 

9. That the students be allowed to work a certain length of time during the 
day, and be compensated therefor. 

10. That the surplus of plants raised be distributed throughout the State, to 
such farmers and persons who are willing to plant the same, and to report an- 
nually on their condition. 

11. That regular daily observations be made on climatic changes." 

These recommendations were made four years after the estab- 
lishment of the Agricultural College. A glance at the reports 
made by other agricultural colleges, as published in the report 
of the department of agriculture, will show that not one of them 
was unsupplied with many — some with all these aids and forms 
of instruction before the close of the third year of their exist- 
ence. What kind of an Agricutural College must that be, 
which, at the close of four years has made no chemical exami- 
nation of our timbers and native vegetation — that is unsupplied 
with seeds — has made no provision for fruit trees — has no green 
house — no propagating house — no industrial museum — no gar- 
dens or gardeners, to say nothing of the absence of a farm and 
stock and all facilties for manual labor and practical illustratra- 
tion; that in fact has never caused a survey to be made of its 
agricultural domain? How much of a "diminution of its cur- 
riculum'" could be made, and have it retain the name of a col- 
lege of agriculture? How long can its avowed curriculum be 
pursued without disclosing to the world the hollowness of its 
pretensions? 

How did the Board dispose of these recommendations of Mr. 
Bolander ? They laid them temporarily on the table two years 
ago, and they have never been heard of since ; but within the 
past three months, since the legislative investigation, and since 
it became known that government contemplated an examination 
and a further conditional endowment, they have adopted three 
or four of the least important of these recommendations, and 
employed a gardener. But where is the experimental garden — 



100 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

where the farm — where the stock — where the great practical lab- 
oratories which are to illustrate the teachings of the class room ? 

Have all these improvements which it seems at one time were 
contemplated, been dispensed with on the recommendation of 
the new President ? Are these among the " difficulties, disap- 
pointments and changes which have occurred in other well 
known institutions," of which the Board of Regents has been 
" minutely informed ?" Is their absence to be supplied by those 
" other methods to reach the same result," so oracularly alluded 
to by the President ? Does the present course and scope of in- 
struction, as published by the President and Regents, embrace 
those other methods ? 

The Board of Regents have adopted for the development of 
the grounds of the University, the plan of W. H. Hall, Esq. 
Mr. Hall's report accompanies the " statements " made by the 
board to the Legislature. It is simply the plan of a landscape 
and ornamental gardener. Convenience, utility, use, economy, 
even the land and soil are subordinated to the single element of 
landscape effect. Mr. Hall says : 

"Though the principles of landscape composition should govern in a great 
measure the arrangement of these grounds, the fact that the institution is one of 
learning should be held in view in the development of every portion of the lands, 
but the entire conversion of this beautiful site into a school of practical horticul- 
ture and agriculture would be a needless act of vandalism. I would therefore 
establish a series of botanical studies, grounds for economic botany, the culture 
of fruits, berries, and farm produce; a forestry, an arboretum and other instruc- 
tive features, some of which are indicated, stocked with a variety of trees and 
shrubs; but I would make their arrangement subservient to principles govern- 
ing the effect of the whole, and not a mere carrying out of botanical classifica- 
tion. ' ' 

Governed by these views, Mr. Hall has devised a very beauti- 
ful plan for the improvement of the University grounds. If 
the institution were simply a college of letters, nothing would 
be more suitable, but when we consider that it is impossible to 
establish an agricultural and mechanical college here, conform- 
able to the advanced views of leading educators in those sciences, 
without at least one farm, without vineyards and graperies, and 
barns, and workshops, and accommodations for stock of different 
kinds, this elaborate ornamentation strikes us as being entirely 
out of place. The student's taste for esthetics will be improved 
at the expense of his taste for the more useful studies. And 
when the time comes, as it surely must, that some or all of the 
conveniences we have mentioned are needed, this beautiful park 
will necessarily be disfigured by structures built more for use 
than beauty. A plan uniting utility with ornament, in which 
the former should predominate, would much better compass the 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 101 

" leading " interest of the institution. As the President says of 
the site, it looks directly toward the Bay, to the Golden Grate, 
and to the Farallone Islands beyond ; one of the most beautiful 
sites adapted to college instruction." 

This grand view itself can compensate for the absence of 
many of the lesser landscape beauties with which Mr. Hall pro- 
poses to adorn the spot. The substantial yoemanry of Califor- 
nia, who have prehaps greater interests in the success of the 
institution than any other class, would be better satisfied to see 
it supplied with means for ample instruction, than mere land- 
scape ornamentation. 

But this improvement is strikingly in harmony with the sys- 
tem of agricultural instruction recommended by the President 
and Board. As that does not contemplate instruction in plow- 
ing and working upon the farm, so this makes no provisions for 
one. As that does not include the use of domestic animals and 
instruction in the selection and raising of stock, so this leaves 
out of view the construction of proper buildings for their accom- 
modation. As that proposes to send its mechanical students to 
San Francisco workshops, and the public works in the bay for 
practical instruction, so this has reserved no place for workshops. 
If the methods of instruction now adopted are ultimately to pre- 
vail, there can be no objection to the plan adopted for the de- 
velopment of the grounds ; but if these should be changed to 
meet the views of the people, the forty thousand dollars expen- 
ded upon the grounds would be literally thrown away. 

In view of the facts we have set forth, what can such an Agri- 
cultural College as we now have, or as we shall have when all 
the promises of its President and the Board of Regents are ac- 
complished, do for California ? It may be assumed that of our 
population, one-fourth at least will always be engaged in some 
of the pursuits of agriculture. Our immense domain must all be 
cultivated or utilized. The whole world is to partake of our 
products. Our wheat crop which now amounts to 27,000,000 
bushels annually, will double itself every ten years for the next 
half century. The same may be said of the grape and fruits 
generally. Many products now in their incipiency, such as cot- 
ton, jute, ramie, &c, will swell into prodigious volume as time 
rolls on, and increase the immensity of our exports. Our State 
is soon to become famous for theculure and manufacture of silk. 
The products of our soil will ever be more diversified than those 
of any other State in the union. The application of science in 
the irrigation of our valleys, in the reclamation, improvement 
and cultivation of our waste lands, in the preservation and trans- 



102 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

portation of our products, is to be of more consequence than any- 
other branches of knowledge taught in our University. Our flocks 
and herds already enormous, will exceed in numbers and diversity 
those of any other country. Our ultimate greatness lies in 
our soil. It is magic that will fill our great harbor with the ships 
of all nations, and our workshops with artisans. Commerce must 
come to it for aid. Manufactures will always find it their strong- 
est friend. Even mining with all its promise of untold millions, 
cannot subsist without it. Wornderful as our growth has been 
during the past quarter of a century, it forms no criterion by 
which to judge of its greatness at the close of the next. 

In determining therefore what methods of instruction should 
be pursued in our Agricultural and Mechanical College, should 
not ample provision be made for the generations who are to carry- 
forward the work of developing our noble State ? Shall those 
strong arms and sinewy frames perform the labor blindly ? 
Shall tho?e active brains expend their powers in mere theory 
and experiment ? No. We can better afford to cramp any other 
branch of learning than that devoted to agriculture. If there is 
a spot on earth where all the recognized means for its improve- 
ment should have the amplest scope, that spot is California. If 
we could remove from its locality in Wurtemburg, the Royal 
Land and Forest Academy of Hohenheim, with its accom- 
plished faculty ; its farm of 800 acres ; its forest of 5000 acres ; 
its school of practical farming ; its experimental stations ; its work- 
shops, manufactories, audits thorough, practical, scientific curri- 
culum, it would not exceed the wants of our State. And there 
is no other State or country where for the benefits it conferred, 
greater reward would be returned. 

It is a mistake to suppose that the intellectual culture needful 
to qualify professional men, writers and scholars, necessarily 
enters into the qualifying studies of the agriculturist. His ed- 
ucation beyond that of general science and a thorough knowledge 
in the use of the English language, should be in his pursuit. A 
thorough training of head and hand in everything relating to the 
soil. If he can unite experiment with theory — take nothing on 
trust — know the conditions of success, his education cannot be a 
failure. This is the aim of the "new education," and unless 
means are afforded for its attainment equal to the end to be at- 
tained, it must fail. Our University, without great and radical 
changes, can never hope to reach it. It must adopt broader views, 
a larger scope, more comprehensive plans, and a general system 
that will give encouragement to all the branches it assumes to 
teach. It must have farms, and barns, and stock, and work shops 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 103 

for its students, as well as in door instruction in the sciences. It 
must have competent teachers, and in its methods of instruction, 
must be directed by men who are willing to be guided by expe- 
rience. It must, of itself, be a great teacher in our midst, whose 
lessons will be respected by the agriculturists of the State, and a 
censor whose criticism they will always fear. It must command 
respect as a public benefactor. Its achievements in learning must 
inspire the people with confidence in its varied capabilites. Its 
graduates must always be proud to belong to its alumni. 

A few experiments in chemistry — a little ornamental work on 
the college grounds — a smattering in the treatment of fruit 
trees — the planting of a few acres here and there in different 
parts of the State, with all the book culture in the world, never 
did, never can make a practical agriculturist, or even beget a 
taste for those nobler and sterner duties upon which the great 
value and merit of the pursuit depends. 

We feel it our duty to warn the people of California against 
an objection, which as yet has appeared only in the form of sug- 
gestion and insinuation, that seeks to transfer the government 
of the University from the State to other hands. The article 
in the Atlantic Monthly for July, already alluded to, contains 
the following paragraphs in allusion to the present form of 
government : 

" At the very outset, the question whether the State should mantain an agri- 
cultural school, or a University including an agricultural school, was discussed 
and determined in favor of the comprehensive plan. The laws of the State are 
clear upon this point. 

" With all these prospects, there is a serious danger. The chief supporter of the 
University may become its chief destroyer. The funds having come chiefly from 
the publics treasury, the legislature of the State has retained a visitorial power, 
and is disposed to supervise not merely the expenditures of money, but the interi- 
or organization, discipline and courses of instruction. The University is not 
governed by a charter, but by sections of the political code. Its Regents are civil 
executive officers, individually responsible. The legislature while in session is 
supreme, having in its hands a despotic power such as kings and parliaments have 
never possessed in the management of Colleges and Universities. It may at will 
abolish the Board of Regents, and substitute for it a body selected by popular 
suffrage. 

" This supremacy is nominally the supremacy of the people ; but there is dan- 
ger that it will be the supremacy of ignorant and prejudiced men, acting in 
haste, under personal pique, and without full consideration of the consequences 
involved." 

The article then proceeds to show how this " supremacy of the 
people" was illustrated in the efforts of the farmers' granges last 
winter, at the close of which we find the following Jesuitical sen- 
tence : 

"Many persons wonder why the friends of the University in California, prefer 
State aid plus State interference, rather than private generosity minus State in- 
terference." 



104 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

This is only a new and more demonstrative form of expressing 
the same, idea, partially uttered by President Gilman in his ad- 
dress before the Legislature. He says : 

"My policy would be, if I were permitted, Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen, to 
make a suggestion, that the State should do that which is essential, that which 
is fundamental, and then by its stable course of treatment should induce wealthy 
men to aid in building up the schools and extending knowledge in all the modern 
sciences." 

Governor Haight, one of the Board of Regents, in addressing 
the students of his old College recently, expressed a belief that 
the sole drawback to the University consisted in its dependence 
upon the Legislature. 

If, taken together, these remarks mean anything, they mean 
that all power of the State over the "interior organization, dis- 
cipline and courses of instruction" should be surrendered. That 
being accomplished, this authority shall be exercised at pleasure 
either by the faculty, the Board of Regents, or perhaps by the 
President alone. Any methods of study they may adopt shall not 
be disturbed by "ignorant and prejudiced men," like the farmers' 
granges last winter. No memorial to the legislature shall drive 
them to the necessity of another disgraceful disclosure of facts, 
like that made by the President and Board of Regents, showing 
that after an existence of six years, both "the leading features" 
of the University had done literally nothing to promote instruc- 
tion in agriculture and mechanics. They will not be compelled 
on the spur of the moment, to patch up a system to meet the 
exigency, in order to save the institution. No power will com- 
pel them to take up and consider recommendations made two years 
ago, and temporarily laid on the table, for giving efficiency to 
the agricultural department. They will not be betrayed into 
the meagre statement of what they have done to show " that the 
good will of the Board towards the Agricultural College may be 
illustrated." 

Who, that is familiar with the Legislative investigations of last 
winter, does not believe that every act, appointment, appropria- 
tion and improvement made since by the Board of Regents, 
relating to agricultural and mechanical colleges, grew out of 
that damaging process ? They would have remained unnoticed 
until now, but for the "ignorant and prejudiced " farmers, gran- 
ges, who had the audacity to memorialize the legislature, and 
make some charges that unfortunately proved true. The writer 
for the Atlantic, who seems to understand this matter as well as 
if he had participated in it, says that " the effort was made to 
turn out the Board of Regents and replace the members by those 
who are fresher from the people/' 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 105 

Was it not time? Had not the board by its neglect forfeited 
all claim to public confidence ? And when those people, who in 
their " ignorance and prejudice" supposed that Congress meant by 
so declaring, that the Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges 
should be "leading features," found that little more than a col- 
lege of letters actually existed, was it strange that they should 
desire a change ? 

This investigation, failure as it was in the object sought, was 
productive of results which clearly demonstrates the necessity of 
of keeping the University where it is. We should be sorry that 
this or any other question affecting it, should require partisan 
interferences, and we feel quite sure it never will, unless preci- 
pitatated by those who favor a divorce between the institution 
and the State. In that event, we shall hope to see the measure 
put down with an emphasis that will be forever conclusive. 

We may not rightly understand the meaning of the President 
in the suggestion " that the State should do that which is essen - 
tial, that which is fundamental, and then by its stable course 
of treatment should induce wealthy men to aid in the building 
up of the schools and extending knowledge in all the modern sci- 
ences." Does it mean that the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- 
leges shall, after being established by the State, depend for fu- 
ture aid, upon voluntary donation, or that this source of support 
shall apply to the college of letters as well ? If the former, it is 
objectionable. Why should one college be supported by the 
State and the other by donations ? Is the college of letters more 
worthy of State favor than the college of arts ? 

If it means that the State shall cease to make any appropria- 
tions for the University after a certain time, but by its "stable 
course of treatment" (what does that mean ?) induce wealthy 
men to make donations, that is objectionable, because it will 
ultimately remove the institution from the control of tne State. 
There is no danger even from the President's exhibit of the be- 
quests and gifts to the University, that the amounts will ever 
exceed the wants, how much soever the State and government 
may give in addition. The institution cannot be too largely en- 
dowed, and the "wealthy men" of California need have no deli- 
cacy in giving to the full extent of their generosity, through any 
fear that they will give too much. Neither they, nor the State, 
nor the government can give to a better cause, unless by improper 
management, its objects should be defeated. 

Thus far in its career, the University has had all it required. 
If the State has no reason to be proud of the University, she 
may certainly feel proud of the noble efforts she has made to es- 



106 THE NEW EDUCATION. 

tablish it. There has been no lack of funds — and the beautiful 
edifices at Berkeley show that there has been no lack of appreci- 
ation of the design of the institution by the State. Indeed the 
President says : 

" The funds of the University are soon to be ample; sufficient I belie re, to 
make it soon unnecessary to ask for further help." 

In Morill's New Agricultural College bill, is the following 
clause : 

"If it shall at any time be made to appear to the Secretary of the Interior, 
b3 - unequivocal evidence, that any State or Territory has not in good faith sub- 
stantially complied, with the provisions of the act named in the first section 
of this act, as to the use, object and purpose therein contemplated, he shall at 
once duly notify the Treasurer of the United States, who shall thereafter withold 
the payment of any interest which may have accrued, or accrue to any Colleges 
in such State or Territory, iintil such time as the Secretary of tbe Interior shall 
be satisfied, as to the compliance with the provisions of said act and shall so no- 
tify the Treasurer aforesaid." 

This law will add over $30,000 annually to the permanent 
endowment of the University, in case it can be shown that the 
institution has faithfully complied with the provisions of this 
act, in making agriculture and the mechanic arts the "leading 
object." We fear for the effect of the answers which the Board 
of Regents and President of California University will be com- 
pelled to make to the searching questions put to them by Con- 
gress on this subject. It is no enviable task. It is easier to tell 
what many of these replies ought to be, than what they will be, 
if we are to judge from the "statements" of the Board, the Uni- 
versity Register, and the President's address. But Congress asks 
for detailed information. The questions are not what expendi- 
tures have been made for the course of general instruction, but 
for branches relating to agriculture and mechanics. How much 
for theory and practice — how much for agricultural chemistry 
— for botany — horticulture, forestry — animal physiology — vet- 
eriniary practice — economic entomology — irrigation ? How much 
for the experimental farm — the machine shops — mining processes 
and methods? What are the subjects of study relating to agri- 
culture — what in the mechanic arts ? And then those compre- 
hensive questions at the close : 

"Has your institution in good faith performed all the conditions and require" 
ments of the statute of July, 1862, and the acts supplementary thereto ? If not, 
state for what cause and in what particular you have failed? Has the gift of the 
United States been preserved unimpaired and devoted to the purposes of your in- 
stitution ? If not, to what extent has it been impaired or diverted, and. under 
what circumstances?" 

We should be glad to feel that the answers to these questions 
could be favorable to the future interests of the University. 
The provisions made for the encouragement of education by the 



THE NEW EDUCATION. 107 

government have ever been on the broadest scale. Before the 
adoption of the Constitution; the Continental Congress deter- 
mined that in every six miles square, the school system should be 
established. Six hundred and forty acres of every township was 
conceded for its support — one thirty-sixth of the entire public 
domain. Education and the settlement of the country were thus, 
from the first; contemporaneous interests. 

When the new States began to come into the Union, the con- 
cession was doubled, so that the cause had twelve hundred 
and eighty acres in each township. The aggregate of the 
land thus given to the support of the common schools, amounts 
to seventy millions, five hundred and fifty-nine thousand, one 
hundred and twelve acres ; besides one million, two hundred and 
forty-four acres granted for seminaries of learning. 

Now that the feasibility of a newer, more practical, more ad- 
vanced system of instruction has been demonstrated, government 
again advances with its aid, and concedes nine millions, six hun- 
dred thousand acres, for its encouragement. And when it is fairly 
under way it comes to its assistance with a permanent annual en- 
dowment. For all this munificence, it naturally expects a return 
in the increase of public intelligence, and the improvement of the 
country. It contemplates great progress in the industrial pur- 
suits of the nation. It looks to see the farms, the workshops 
and the various mining and mechauical occupations, brought un- 
der the control of science, and conducted by an educated people. 
It anticipates a period when every man in the nation shall by the 
results of educated labor, be placed above want, and become a 
contributor to the general welfare. Shall California do her part 
in this great reformation ? 

COLUMELLA. 



MEMORIAL 

OF 

California State Grange, 

AND 

MECHANICS' DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLY 

ON THE 

STATE UNIVERSITY. 

To the Senate and Assembly of the State of California : 

In accordance with the accompanying resolutions of the State Grange of Cal- 
ifornia, and the Mechanics' Deliberative Assembly of San Francisco, the follow- 
ing: petition has been prepared : 

KESOLUTIONS OF STATE GRANGE. 

OFFERED BY W. H. BAXTER. _ 

Resolved, That a coram itee of three be appointed on the subject of agricultural 
education. Said commitee to inquire particularly into the condition of the Agri- 
cultural Department of the State University— what improvements, if any, should 
be made, and what legislation, if any, is required to secure to the farmers of the 
State the full benefits of the Agricultural College grant. 

Resolved, That the true meaning and intent of the Congressional grant (see Act 
eighteen hundred and sixty-two), was to establish primarily " Agricultural or 
M Mechanic Arts" Colleges, and that the funds derived therefrom should be nrst 
applied to these purposes, and that the State should render such aid as may be 
necessary. Such colleges should be mainly under the control of men engaged in 
these pursuits, and should be practical as well as theoretical. 

Adopted. University Commitee : J. W. A. Wright, W. H. Baxter, O. L. 

RESOLUTIONS OF MECHANICS' DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLY. 

PRESENTED BY JUDGE E. D. SAWYER. 

Whereas, The Congressional Act of eighteen hundred and sixty-two, grant- 
ing lands to the several States, had for its object the promotion of liberal and 
practical education of the industrial classes ; and whereas, this State, in accepting 
the grant and establishing the University of California, made provisions tor a 
College of Mechanic Arts, and a College of Agriculture, thus guaranteeing to the 
people of the State practical instruction in these pursuits ; therefore, 

Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to make snch inquiry as may 
be proper as to what caD be done, or what legislation is necessary to secure to the 
industrial classes, through the State University, its educational advantages. 

The resolution was adopted, and E. D. Sawyer, C. C. Terrill, and M. J. Donovan 
appointed on the commitee. 

Your petioners, in furtherance of the above views, and in behalf of the industrial classes of 
California, both agriculturists aud mechanics, would respectfully call the attention of your 
honorable body to the condition and wants of the State University. 

We make this petition with all due deference to the Honorable Board of Regents and 
Faculty of our University, and with no desire to interfere improperly with any of their rights or 
duties. But we believe the interests of the people of the State, for whose benefit especially this 
noble institution was established, require that greater efficiency be given to the agricultural, 



110 MEMORIAL. 

mechanical, and other industrial instruction therein, without diminishing the usefulness of those 
departments already in successful operation. 

Your petitioners find that the State University resulted from an Act of Congress entitled 
" An Act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide Col- 
leges/or the benefit of agriculture and the meclianic arts." By this Act one hundred and fifty 
thousand acres (more or less) were donated to California. 

In accordance with this munificent provision of the United States Government, our Legisla- 
ture passed an Act establishing a University, and prescribing that its most prominent features 
should be Colleges of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. 

By reference to the last report from each of the thirty-eight States that shared in this national 
endowment, to the Department of Agriculture, at "Washington, we find nearly every one of them 
carrying out both the letter and the spirit of the Act of Congress ; " that they are attended by 
over three thousand students, most of whom are practically pursuing agricultural and mechan- 
ical studies," with well stocked farms, workshops, and all necessary appliances of instruction. 

In the same report, we read that " in California a farm of about two hundred acres has been 
provided for the Agricultural Department, but it has not been improved, nor are the students 
instructed in agriculture outside of the school-room. 

The Act of Congress requires that the " leading object" of the Industrial Universities shall be 
without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach 
such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner 
as the Legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and 
practical education of the industrial classes in their several pursuits. 

The organic Act creating the University requires that the College of Agriculture shall first be 
developed, " and next, that of the Mechanic Arts." We find that of the monthly appropriation 
(six thousand dollars) for the regular expenses only one twentieth is now devoted to the Agricul- 
tural Department, and that one Professor is discharging all the duties of instruction on the 
subjects related to it. JYo technical instruction in the meclianic arts has thus far been given. 

The instructional force of the University (besides the President) is as follows : 

One Professor of Latin and Greek, and two Assistants. 

One Instructor in Hebrew. 

One Professor of Mathematics, and two Assistants. 

One Professor of Modern Languages, and two Assistants. 

One Professor of Chemistry, and two Assistants (advanced students) . 

One Professor of PhysicB and Mechanics. 

One Professor of Geology and Natural History. 

One Professor of Civil Engineering and Astronomy. 

One Professor of Rhetoric, History, and English Language. 

One Instructor in Drawing. 

One Professor in Agriculture, Agricultural Chemistry, and Horticulture. 

Your petitioners do, therefore, request, that in accordance with plans pursued at Cornell, the 
Massachusetts and Michigan Agricultural Colleges, the Universities of Missouri, Illinois, and 
many others (as may be seen from the report already referred to), that whatever State aid is 
granted for our University; and as rapidly as the income from the land sales is received, it may 
be "first of all applied to the extending of the Colleges of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, 
and all the departments of instruction which directly bear upon the studies pursued in them." 

With this object in view, we earnestly recommend a sufficient appropriation to carry out the 
following objects: 

First — The improvement of such portions of the University grounds as may be required to 
illustrate practically the subjects taught in the Department of Agriculture, and the adaptation 
of this State to various cultures. The erection of a plain, convenient, and commodious farm 
house, with suitable outhouses, to be occupied by the Professor of Agriculture, or some practi- 
cal farmer to act under his direction. To this an orchard, vineyard, vegetable and flower gar- 
den, and a poultry yard should be attached ; also, a propagating house, and, as soon as practi- 
cable, a conservatory. The culture of cereals, textiles, and other valuable vegetable produc- 
tions ; the rearing of stock, bees, and silk worms should be illustrated, on a small scale, epito- 
mizing the entire range of agricultural industries. 

Second -The appropriation of a sufficient amount to secure the necessary practical instruction 
in the mechanic arts ; to provide blacksmiths', carpenters', cabinet, and machine shops, and 
printing press, under the supervision of competent persons. 

We by no means expect to accomplish all this at once, but we ask means to secure to the 
youth of our State, with proper economy and despatch, the advantages enjoyed by students of 
the best developed institutions which owe their existence to the same foundation. We desire 
that the grounds of our University, its museums, parks and gardens, may eventually become 
as those of the Garden of Plants at Paris ; and that our College of Mechanic Arts may, without 
needless delay, rival the Technological School in Boston. We ask that in keeping with the 
educational standards of the age, the principles of object teaching and practical instruction be 
conducted in connection with the ideal and theoretical, and occupy in the chief school of the 
State the position which their importance demands. We believe that nowhere will the dignity 
of labor be bo strongly impressed upon the mind as in those higher institutions of learning, 
organized for the benefit of the most important class of laborers, where the acquisition of skill 
goes hand in hand with the acquisition of knowledge. 

We find that the Board of Regents, as at present constituted, does not sufficiently represent 
the various portions and interests of the State. Though composed of gentlemen of the highest 
position and worth, they reside, mainly, in San Francisco and Oakland, and although they have 
been zealous in their efforts to secure the prosperity of the institution, we believe that the best 
interests of education would be promoted by an amendment of the Act so as to unify the Uni- 
versity with the other departments ol State education. We therefore respectfully ask such 



MEMORIAL. Ill 

f 

amendment of this Act, and of -other Acts, as shall constitute a State Board of Edncation, hav- 
ing charge of the University, the Normal School, and other public schools, and to consist of 
fifteen Regents, viz : Seven ex-officio— the Governor , Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the As- 
sembly, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, President ol the State Agricultural Society, 
Master of the State Grange, and President of the Mechanics' Iustitute of San Francisco ; also 
two Members from each Congressional District, to be appointed from their districts by the 
Governor, with the consent of the Senate, for their first terms, and afterwards to be elected by 
the people as vacancies occur. We also reeomend that any nine members shall constitute a 
quorum, as the Board of Education, or as the Board of Regents for the University or as the 
Board of Trustees of the State Normal School. We ask that they be so selected as to represent 
the various industrial interests, occupations, and professions of the citizens of the State. 

The law (Article Four, section fourteen hundred and filty of the new Code), clearly provides 
that the Secretary of the Board of Regents must be a practical farmer, and must reside and 
keep his office at the site of the University. These requirements having been hitherto disre- 
garded, vi e r commfiid that the law be either rigidly enforced or essentialy modified. 

It is generally understood that a portion of the lauds donated by Congress for the purposes 
of industrial education in California, have been sold at five dollars per acre, one fifth of the 
amount having been paid down, and it is understood that the fund thus obtained has been used 
in paying Protessorships and scholarships in our University. But it is the misfortune of the 
people of California to know very little about these lands and their present condition, while 
they do know that in other States, in consequence of mismanagement, only a small part of 
the real value of school and University lands has been realized. In some instances timber 
lands valued at thirty and fifty dollars per acre have been taken up, the first payments made, 
the timber removed, and the lands forfeited. It is clearly the right of the people to have cor- 
rect information on this subject. 

We do therefore petition your honorable body that a University Committee be carefully se- 
lected from your number whose duty it shall be to examine fully, minutely, and impartially 
into the location and present condition of all lands donated to California for these purposes ; 
to ascertain what has accrued from the sales thereof, and how the same has been expended ; 
and that the necessary power be granted them to send for persons, books and papprs, to admin- 
ister the necessary oaths, and take the testimony for the thorough investigation of the whole 
question, and that the results of such investigation be published without unnecessary delay, 
for the information of the people. 

In view of the important fact that another bill was introduced into Congress, at the late sess- 
ion (by Mr. Merrill, the author of the original bill ; see Agricultural Report, pp. 34H, 872), which 
it is expected will be passed during the coming Winter, giving to each of the industrial Uni- 
versities in operation an additional grant of five hundred thousand acres, we also request that 
our Legislature memorialize Congress so to amend the law regarding the locations upon ur.- 
surveyed lands as to protect actual settlers in their improvements up to the time that the lo- 
cator can make his selection by sections or subdivisions. 

As a means of redress for siezures under the existing law, we als<» recommend that our 
Legislature forthwith pass an Act, providing that in all cases where contests have arisen, or 
may hereafter arise, before the Board of Regents of the University upon the University lands, 
and the contestant shall feel aggrieved at the decision of said Board, he shall have the right 
of appeal to the District Court by giving the usual notice of said appeal. 

We respectfully recommend that all the University funds be kept in the State Treasury, 
subject only to order in proper form for University disbursements. 

As we are now informed that the funds hitherto appropriated are exhausted, and that addi- 
tonal appropriations will be required at the present session to add other and needed improve- 
ments, in accordance with the original plan, your petitioners would respectfully ask that in 
addition to the sum required for monthly current expenses, the following be specifically appro- 
priated : 

For farm, buildings, implements, stock, etc., twenty-five thousand dollars. 

For annual farm and garden expenses, payment of students and other labor, salary of farmer 
and gardener, expenses of lectures from experts in special cultures, agricultural, entomology, 
veteriniary science, etc., collection and preparation of specimens for museum of agriculture, 
and incidental expenses, fifteen thousand dollars. 

For mechanical shops, printing press, steam engine, and their appurtenances, fifty-thousand 
dollars. 

For annual expenses of mechanical shops, printing press, superintendence, students, and 
skilled labor, collections of models and raw materials for Museum of Mechanic Arts, lectures 
on technical subjects connected with mechanical pursuits by skilled persons, and incidental ex- 
penses, fifteen thousand dollars. 

It is expected that this will furnish the carpenters', cabinet work, and printing for the insti- 
tution. 

It should be borne in mind that these departments are to be created, and that no part of the 
twenty thousand dollars already expended for chemical and physical apparatus will supply 
their technical needs. 

The completion of the central building, according to the original plan, is a prime necessity in 
accomplishing the gieat purpose of the University: for, in the absence of suitable rooms for 
the present Museum and Library, it has been considered necessary to occupy for this purpose 
a part of the College of Agriculture, a building designed to supply the wants of this department, 
as is indicated by the appropriate and bountilul emblems that adorn its outer walls. In this 
exigency the entire Agricultural Department is forced into the limited space of the north half 
of the basement of this splendid structure, thus placing in a subordinate position which it was 
never intended to occupy, what should be the most prominent department of the State Univer- 
sity. 

We find that a building containing an Assembly Hall ; Museum, etc., can be erected oj wood 



mSSS* 0F CONGRESS 




112 memorial. 029 917 799 3 



at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; of brick, with granite facings, two hun- 
dred and fifty-six thousand dollars. 

The labor of students can be utilized in the construction of this and other needed 
edifices and deserving young men can in this way be aided in paying a part at least of the ex- 
penses of their education. Suitable dwellings should at once be erected for the accommodation 
of the Professors and club houses for the students, upon the University grounds, tor which a 
moderate rent might be charged. At present, both Professors and students are compelled to 
live at Oakland, five milesdistant, or to provide themselves accommodations in the yet sparsely- 
settled neighborhood of Berkeley, at an expense greater than their means will justify. The en 
tire energies ol the University body should be concentrated in and around its scholastic home. 

In conclusion, we would repeat that it is not now our object to undervalue what has been 
so well done in the erection of buildings, of which the State may be justly proud ; in the open- 
ing of the doors of the University to both sexes ; in making its instruction in all departments 
free; in organizing the Military Department and Labor Corps; and in securing a Faculty of 
zealous and able men. But, believing that the first and highest employment of men is to feed, 
shelter, and clothe, the world, we ask that the graduates of our industrial colleges may be 
" peers of scholars in mental culture," and peers of laborers in manual skill and physical de- 
velopment. 

The relations of labor to study are admirably stated in the Report of the Missouri University. 

" The pupil must study till he knows what should be done, why it should be done, and how 
When this is done, the intellectual division of labor is finished. The pupil must labor till he can 
do work in the farm and shjp with skill; then the manual division of an industrial education, 
is finished. In agriculture, he should thus learn whatever is done on the farm, in the garden, 
orchard, and nursery. If it is asked : " Who shall direct the labors of the pupils i" "We an- 
swer : " The teacher of the principles put in practice, that useless and impracticable theories . 
may not be introduced." 

Agriculture is far from being an exact science, and its conditions on this coast are peculiar 
We ask that our University be- mile useful to the largest number of our citizens, by accurate 
annual reports of work done, experiments made, and results arrived at. 

Agriculture in its various departments, should be so taught and practiced in our University 
as to send forth scientific farmers, who3e labor and skill can utilize the soil and develop its 
greatest resources, while the mechanical department should graduate learned and skilled me- 
chanics, who shall add dignity and worth to labor ; and it is the earnest desire and purpose of 
agriculturists and mechanics of this State to make these great departments of industry the 
leading features of our State University, and for this purpose we expect your cordial co-operation , 
and such appropriations as are necessary. 

Nor do we think 'that any mechanical schools in San Francisco, valuable as they may become, 
can supply the place of the College of Mechanic Arts, as provided by the original plan of the 
State University. 

We also request the present Legislature to order that block letters be prepared and placed 
upon the east and west faces of the main building of the University , marking it for all time with 
the words, " Agmcoltural College of the University of California." 

J. W. A. WEIGHT, W. H. BAXTER, O. L. ABBOTT, 

Committee of State Grange . 

E. D. SAWYER, M. J. DONOVAN, Esq, CHAS. C. TERRILL, 

Committee of Deliberative Assembly. 

To the Executive Committee, California State Grange : 

Your committee, appointed in accordance with a resolution adopted by the State Grange at 

its last session, herewith submit this memorial as their report on the measures contained therein. 

J. W. A. WRIGHT, W. H. BAXTER, O. L. ABBOTT. 

Resolved, That the within report be received and adopted. Carried. 

To The Honorable Senate and Assembly of the State of California : 

The Executive Committee of the California State Grange hereby respectfully reccommend 
that your honorable body take immediate action to carry into effect the measures proposed in 
this memorial. 

J. M, HAMILTON, J. C. MERRYFIELD, A. B. NALLEY, 

H. B; JOLLY, G. W. COLBY, J. G. GARDNER, 

Executive Committee of California State Grange: 



